Public finance

With a fresh default on debt service looming, Lombard, Ill., wants bondholders to buy into a proposed restructuring of its $190 million of hotel/conference center debt.

CALIFORNIA

Illinois returns to the market in January with a $480 million bond deal after a 20-month absence during which its ratings fell and its unpaid bill backlog skyrocketed, and with a state budget six months overdue.

Washington State Treasurer James McIntire surprised insiders with his decision to not seek re-election after two terms in a position that includes oversight of state bond sales.

Municipal portfolio managers, strategists, analysts, and directors, weighed in on the impact of December's interest rate increase and other predictions for 2016.

MISSOURI

In the week ended Dec. 24, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index fell to 4.22% from 4.24% in the previous week. The BB40 Index is based on the price of 40 long-term bonds.

The gasoline tax and other dedicated taxes and fees provide about 70% of the funding in the new five-year, $305 billion FAST Act, but that level of support will drop to about 50% when the measure expires in October 2020, said Peter Nonis, senior manager for federal relations at the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The search for a robust revenue source to supplement or even replace the federal gasoline tax will pick up speed in 2016.

ILLINOIS

Respondents to an annual SIFMA survey predict total municipal issuance will hit $431.5 billion next year, while they predict that the federal funds rate will rise to 1% by the end of 2016.

The new five-year federal transportation funding law has opportunities as well as some limits for P3 project financing.

KENTUCKY

COLORADO

States will face funding challenges in 2016 as lawmakers look for ways to raise revenues for local highway projects during an election year.

Issuers say green bonds are here to stay, and that efforts to increase transparency about the environmental benefits will pay off with a broader investor base and cheaper financing costs.

MINNESOTA

ARKANSAS

Smooth sailing is seen for toll road credits in 2016, as positive performance trends are expected to continue in the new year, Fitch says.

The "gradual and contingent nature" of the California Public Employees' Retirement System plan to revise its investment return assumptions could mean substantial fiscal risk to California governments, Moody's Investors service said Friday.