Municipal disclosure

The state took nearly two years to publish its fiscal 2024 annual comprehensive financial report — and that was an improvement.

SMAs are a "shoot now, ask questions later" type of buyer, said Dan Close, head of Nuveen's municipal fixed income team.

Muni market professionals discuss the risks and benefits for issuers considering using AI to create disclosure documents. 

While California has improved the timeliness of its audited comprehensive financial reports, Nevada continues to struggle.

Illinois released its 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report last week, completing the report nearly eight months earlier than its 2024 ACFR.

Market Intelligence analyst Jeff Lipton explains how California Mello-Roos land-secured bonds can add yield and diversification, and outlines the underwriting checklist investors should use to balance development risk against structural protections.

Muni bond issuers cut their median audit times from 2023 to 2024, with issuers in all governmental bond and most revenue bond sectors reducing audit timelines.

Issuers using cash basis accounting pay a yield premium to sell bonds, according to a new paper, and their bonds are less likely to trade in the secondary.

Maryland drops Moodys a year after the ratings agency downgraded its credit as the state preps for a major bond sale this week.

A sweeping Illinois bill to loosen local government audit requirements is on pause, but its backers hope to push the legislation through next session.

"I think any effort to make reporting less frequent is a step backwards in transparency," NFMA's Mary Francoeur said.

Jay Leno, longtime comedian, TV host and car enthusiast, promoted an upcoming municipal bond deal in a video for Hollywood Burbank Airport.

Market Intelligence analyst Jeff Lipton warns that as ESSER-era support fades, shifting enrollment patterns, voucher expansion, tax-cut dynamics and rising costs are exposing credit stress in parts of the K-12 sector — making security selection and disclosure discipline more important in 2026 and beyond.

Enrollment began to drop in the middle of the school year as rumors about immigration raids circulated through Fresno, Aspen Public Schools told bond investors.

With large language models parsing EMMA filings and investor relations sites, municipal issuers must modernize their disclosure so both humans and algorithms can accurately understand their credit story and avoid unintended red flags.

As climate and cybersecurity risks intensify, Jeff Lipton argues it's time for the legal community to lead a new era of municipal disclosure — tightening language, clarifying exposures, and ensuring investor confidence.

The attackers did not steal any data, but the firm had to rebuild its servers to get back into operation, said Albert Rodriguez, a manager at ImageMaster.

"If I wanted to target municipal finance, this would be a really good place for me to start," said Omid Rahmani, public finance cybersecurity lead at Fitch Ratings.

Four cities were ordered to halt recent tax hikes pending an investigation of whether they complied with a state law that enforces a deadline for annual audits.

Political dysfunction is far and away the leading economic and policy concern for muni market participants, according to a new Bond Buyer infrastructure survey.