Public finance

While the state is boosting the budget reserve, it's also forecasting $1.4 billion in additional fiscal 2024 revenue that would be partially offset by spending pressures.

Fitch also affirmed the GOAA's AA-minus rating on $1.8 billion of outstanding senior lien airport facilities revenue bonds and A-plus on $867 million of subordinate lien airport facilities revenue bonds.

St. Louis County Council approved $155 million in tax breaks for the company and the state added $37.7 million to the pot.

Well-known municipal restructuring and P3 attorney Karol Denniston, the Global Projects Partner at Squire Patton Boggs, talks with infrastructure reporter Caitlin Devitt about the growing popularity of predevelopment agreements as well as the P3 pipeline and legal challenges like the University of Iowa's litigation over its 50-year energy concession. (38 minutes)

First quarter revenues were 20.4% higher than Oversight Board forecasts.

The rally in munis over the last three weeks has "pushed ratios to levels that we have not seen since the start of the year," said Jason Wong, vice president of municipals at AmeriVet Securities.

Tradeweb created a model that examines outstanding municipal securities, both tax-exempts and taxables, and it looks for similarities in bond features, such as maturities, call dates, use of proceeds and coupon structures.

Florida outpaced the national average in overall labor force gains last month while the state's 2.8% unemployment rate was lower than the nation's 3.9% in October.

Recommendations from an actuary on the city's police and fire pensions come amid a rising unfunded liability and uncertainty over the use of pension bonds.

The Port Authority's proposed 2024 budget of $9.3 billion includes capital spending of $3.6 billion, above levels set pre-pandemic for the first time.

BofA Global Research strategists said they believe peak muni yields in this Fed tightening cycle were attained in October 2023 and "the bull market for munis is underway." 

The municipal dashboard solves three challenges: bond linkage, pricing and spread aggregation.

The process of turning the data into a usable form takes time and can be compounded by the difficulty of extracting what data there is and the format used by issuers in documents, like official statements, disclosures and other financials.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit was highlighted in the report on agencies still struggling.

The projects range from airports to ports and transit-oriented development.

Without a lot of additional state and federal aid, New York City is forecasting it will spend about $12 billion in costs related to the influx of migrants to the city in fiscal years 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Mayor Eric Adams says the city has a safe and effective way to use artificial intelligence throughout municipal government while protecting against the risks.

"Demand is firming up. Interest rates have moved off the recent highs. Intermediate muni yields are about 50 basis points off from those highs," said Stephen Shutz, head of tax-exempt fixed income and a portfolio manager at Brown Advisory.

Buying technology can be a relatively safe bet, especially if it comes from an established brand, and it comes with support, maintenance and expertise from vendors. Internally building it allows for exclusivity and a potential competitive advantage.

Oversight Board asks Gov. Pierluisi not to sign a bill it says would cost $3 billion over five years.