SALT deduction

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is in the early stages of hammering out a surface transportation bill designed to prop up the Highway Trust Fund while House Ways and Means tinkers with a tax deal.

The Senate move provides an alternative pathway towards a final budget agreement as the House wrestles with an approach that could include key tax policy changes for the muni market.

The lobby trying to protect the tax exemption is working overtime as the threat appears very real.

A record-breaking year for bond issuance will likely be followed by another strong year for munis even as the threat of ending the tax-exempt status appears in writing within the halls of Congress.

Lifting the SALT cap is one of several thorny issues Republicans hope to iron out as part of a larger reconciliation bill by March.

Congressional observers are casting a skeptical eye about the productivity of the new 119th Congress that is already defined by ideological differences separating factions within the majority party.

The legislative track pursued by Republicans will set the timeline for the tax reform debate closely watched by the municipal market.

The new Congress will have a full plate including deciding the fate of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and Internal Revenue Service funding in a legislature that's already showing cracks of disagreement.

Economists gaming out the possibilities for tax policy in the Trump administration believe the bond market will dictate budget cuts and spending increases.

Extending tax cuts from TCJA is viewed as fiscally problematic.