Munis

The northern California school district has been struggling for years and on several occasions abandoned plans to consolidate schools, which rating agencies say might have shored up finances.

Jamie Doffermyre  has worked in munis at Truist Securities, Citi and Merrill Lynch.

Executing a successful bond issuance becomes simpler by combining long range planning, shorter-term timing and marshaling political support.

The approval of $650 million of revenue bonds comes in the wake of a recently filed petition seeking to subject the project to voter approval or delay.

With the advance refunding of tax-exempt munis still off the table, issuers are using existing market conditions to shed Build America Bonds and realize debt service savings through tender offers.

The city is gearing up to sell $252 million of general obligation bonds this year and $1.5 billion of revenue bonds in 2026 for a convention center project.

"I've never seen this level of hand wringing at the issuer level," said Matt Boles, managing director at RBC Capital Markets.

Higher interest rates are keeping arbitrage on the playing field as issuers try to play by the rules and still come out ahead.

Yakym praised the successful effort to preserve the tax exemption throughout One Big Beautiful Bill negotiations and encouraged market advocates to keep lobbying lawmakers.

Its triple-A bonds have recovered after cheapening earlier this year under a pressure campaign from the Trump administration.

The Roosevelt Institute rolled out a new report on munis revealing the latest trends in public finance along with critiques and recommendations for alternative ways to fund infrastructure.

State and local pension funds are "surviving but not thriving," said Equable in its State of Pensions 2025 report.

Maryland's Capital Debt Affordability Committee is recommending the state stick to its guns by endorsing a plan to borrow up to $1.75 billion for capital projects in the coming fiscal year, despite the job shedding inflicted by the Trump administration's plans to shrink the federal government.

The bill was a response to a charter school fraud that took the state for $400 million, but Gov. Gavin Newsom said the proposed reforms were too expensive.

Among those approved is a $117 million variable rate demand bond expected to be marketed late this year.

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.

"The project is not dead," said the transportation planning board chair.

The city plans a competitive general obligation bond sale, as well as a sales tax revenue bond issue to help finance a professional basketball arena next year.

The Trump administration's tariff policy is affecting vulnerable pockets of the economy including the construction industry, port operations and states with a reliance on international trade.

"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.