Public finance

A spike in the SIFMA municipal swap index is making the short-end of the municipal bond yield curve unusually attractive.

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, floated an alternative proposal aimed at saving Atlantic City from insolvency that sets additional benchmarks for the distressed gambling hub before his previously-proposed state intervention would take effect.

CALIFORNIA

ARKANSAS

Upgrading San Francisco’s vulnerable northern seawall to protect against earthquakes and rising sea level could cost $5 billion.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers is calling for the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department to revise and re-propose rules that would determine when entities are political subdivisions that can issue tax-exempt bonds.

CALIFORNIA

ALASKA

Maryland legislators have overridden Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto of a bill requiring ranking of transportation projects.

MINNESOTA

IOWA

The Conroe Industrial Development Corporation in Texas has paid a penalty and agreed to redeem bonds under the Internal Revenue Service’s voluntary closing agreement program (VCAP) to settle a tax violation relating to bonds it issued in 2008 and refunded in 2012.

UMB Bank N.A., the bond trustee for Texas Pellets, accelerated the outstanding debt on $186.5 million of bonds due to a default at the company owned by German Pellets, which filed for insolvency in February.

The Associated Press and Municipal Bond Information Services, a national consortium of municipal interdealer brokers, announced Monday that it has created a new muni bond index.

LOUISIANA

ARIZONA

Douglass P. Selby will be the new head of public finance at Hunton & Williams, and John O’Neill will lead the public-private partnership practice group.

ARKANSAS

ALABAMA

Increased federal funding is needed to help state and local governments improve water and wastewater systems Senate committee members agreed during a hearing on Thursday.