Public finance

Cook County faces a general fund budget gap of $102.6 million in 2026, and many grants are at risk under the new White House and Republican-controlled Congress.

The FOMC's decision to "hold rates steady while signaling only two cuts this year was a subtle but powerful shift," said James Pruskowski, CIO at 16Rock Asset Management.

Florida lawmakers passed a state budget and approved plans to pay off $830 million of debt in fiscal 2026 in advance of maturity.

The rock-bottom prices show the risks of a high-yield market where liquidity is famously limited.

A colleague called the Florida-based lawyer "an institution" in the public finance community

Under the agreement, the NBA's Thunder will play for at least 25 years in an arena that will be largely financed by a sales tax revenue bond sale later this year.

A growing rainy-day fund helped Alaska win a Moody's Ratings upgrade, bringing the state's issuer and general obligation bond ratings to Aa2 from Aa3.

Deals from two small Michigan cities show how bond-funded improvements are used to keep up with water infrastructure replacement needs.

"We expect no change to rates but [for the Federal Open Market Committee] to continue to signal that rate cuts should still be expected," said Cooper Howard, a fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab.

Hillman is part of a spate of hirings deepening the firm's presence in certain regions and the transportation sector. 

In the first quarter of this year, 18.6% of new-issue volume in the market was traded electronically, up from 17.3% last year, according to data from Coalition Greenwich.

After two weeks of a deluge of issuance, supply drops off "given the FOMC meeting and Juneteenth holiday, so we expect investors will refocus on the secondary market and look to scoop up any value left behind in the wake of the issuance onslaught," said Birch Creek strategists.

"This case involves the discovery of a massive Ponzi-like fraud orchestrated by former GHA executive director Robert Cappelletti," plaintiffs GHA and Greater Groton Realty Corp., a non-profit affiliate of the GHA, said in an April court filing. 

Fitch cited the authority's stronger margins in recent years.

The panel is not expected to change rates, but the dot plot will be watched to see if the Fed's prior projection of two rate cuts this year holds.

Civic Builders, a 23-year-old nonprofit charter school developer and financer, borrowed though the public municipal bond market for the first time.

The state was one of three where one person was responsible for deciding how to invest pension money.

Issuance takes a bit of a breather due to the Juneteenth holiday and the Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Barclays strategists said.

The California High Speed Rail Authority said state funds and a potential public-private partnership would be able to cover the initial Central Valley segment.

"There's a lot more we can do now that we have a platform," said DPC DATA CEO Ken Hoffman.