Munis

Chicago will issue $80.865 million of Series 2024A and 2024B senior lien airport revenue refunding bonds for Midway, with a pricing date to be determined.

The top five bond financings have an average dollar volume of more than $957 million.

The bill allows local governments to bypass public bidding and notice requirements in current P3 law.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said her public-private sector plan to build a strategic water supply will remain a top priority after a bill for financing failed to advance in the legislature.

Market participants said it is yet to be seen whether issuers will pull back their BABs refundings due to concerns after several bondholders sent a letter to the trustee on a Regents of the University of California deal, saying it was "prohibited" from executing the redemption.

Pittsburgh-based Robert Morris University was downgraded by Moody's Ratings. The private university is part of a growing list of smaller higher education institutions, particularly in the Northeast, that are facing increasing financial pressures as the pool of potential students shrinks.  

Detroit, which has several climate-friendly projects in the pipeline, is seeking a tax advisor to help navigate snag tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Chapter 11 case for Harvest Gold Silica follows two other bankruptcy filings over the last year by entities that sold bonds through the Arizona Industrial Development Authority.

U of I's plans to issue debt ahead of the expiration of a non-binding agreement in May were challenged by a state high court decision to hear an appeal and an Idaho House of Representatives resolution.

Harvard and Princeton coming to market is a "huge sign of confidence," said Clare Pickering, a Barclays strategist.

Large deals were repriced to lower yields while the secondary market was lightly traded, leading to little changed triple-A yield curves and underperformance to Treasury market gains. Despite a growing calendar, the supply demand imbalance remains with much cash on the sidelines.

The rating agency cited the university's structural budget imbalance and management turnover among factors that drove the outlook revision to negative from stable.

The San Diego Community College District is among those joining the trend of buying back bonds in a tender to refund for savings.

A power struggle over the governance of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority and a Houston mayor ending a legal dispute with firefighters that could improve the city's Fitch rating are among the legal stories bond market professionals are watching.

High rates and high inflation, coupled with rich reserves, pushed off or delayed issuers coming to market in 2023, noted James Pruskowski, chief investment officer at 16Rock Asset Management.

Escalating costs led University of Utah Health to seek a doubling of its bonding authority from the state legislature for a medical campus project.

Spaceports should have the same access to tax-exempt financing as airports and seaports, supporters say.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond released opinions that disallowed the holding of multiple government roles by Turnpike Authority Executive Director Tim Gatz and upheld the constitutionality of a 2023 law that altered the turnpike's governance structure.

Legal challenges to congestion pricing tolls may delay much-needed repairs to the city's transit system, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said. 

Public finance lawyers Alison Radecki and Helen Pennock, who come to the firm from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, will work of of the New York City office.