Private activity bonds

A $300 million bond and a planned monkey breeding facility's fate are at stake in a legal struggle in Georgia.

With the threat to tax exempt municipal bonds looming in a Congress searching for pay-fors, private activity bonds supporting hospitals and higher education are high on the list of potential first targets.

Housing advocates concerned about the fate of private activity bonds are working on strategies for getting PABs and tax-exempt munis off the table while Congress searches for ways to pay for tax cut extensions.

The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act is reintroduced in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support to increase the development of affordable housing by leveraging private activity bonds and loosening restriction on Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

An Oklahoma agency is borrowing $1.15 billion through an unrated tax-exempt Public Finance Authority bond deal to build and equip a tire factory backed by Finnish interests.

"If you're an issuer, this is fly-in season," said Jarrod Loadholt, partner at Ice Miller LLP. "Don't hope someone else is going to solve this for you — they're not."

Bond trustee UMB Trust has engaged Lighthouse Management Group to serve as the receiver.

It marks a major step forward for the long-stalled high-speed train project between Dallas and Houston.

The Senate hearing comes as lawmakers start to shape the next surface transportation bill.

Native American Tribes are working their way through Congressional committees looking for support on legislation that would allow the tribes to issue municipal bonds using the same rules as state governments.

The Trump administration singled out the Las Vegas-Los Angeles bullet train for praise Thursday, the same day the deal priced.

As Congress begins hammering out the budget resolutions that will shape the country's fiscal future, muni lobbyists double down on efforts to keep the tax-exemption in place.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn remains a supporter of private activity bonds, his staff told BDA.

It could be the year's largest unrated municipal bond deal.

The Florida-based mining company failed to make $10 million in principal and interest payments due on Jan. 1. Florida had the largest number of defaults in 2024 at nine, per Municipal Market Analytics, Inc.

The legislative reconciliation process will move fast and cutting the budget is in vogue. As such, we must recalibrate our goals as an industry to reflect the new political paradigm.

Enviva's bankruptcy is the latest Chapter 11 bankruptcy where green private activity bonds are restructured to near zero.

Concerns are rising as the Congressional Budget Office has issued a report laying out the benefits of eliminating tax-exempt qualified private activity bonds.

Justices appeared open to narrowing the scope of federal environmental impact reviews during oral arguments on a bond-financed Utah railway to move crude oil.

The company hopes to come to market after completing negotiations on $6 billion of senior bank financing.