Tax-exempt bonds

In a Friday letter, NABL has only four suggestions for the IRS 2020 priority guidance plan on regulatory issues involving the tax-exempt bond industry, half as many as it did a year ago.

About half of the multifamily housing units built nationally that use the federal 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credit are financed with tax-exempt PABs.

The decision to release the plan signals a resolve on the part of at least some lawmakers to prioritize infrastructure legislation even though President Trump recently announced he won’t work with top congressional Democrats as long as he’s under investigation by them.

State and local governments would be able to issue tax-exempt PABs not subject to state volume caps if at least 95% or more of the net proceeds are used for green infrastructure.

GASB Statement 91 calls for conduit issuers to stop reporting conduit debt in their financial statements and to report all of it in their accompanying notes starting Dec. 15, 2020.

Officials with the private passenger train company said contractors have been hired to extend service from West Palm Beach to Orlando.

The new guidance issued Wednesday under Notice 2019-39 covers, among other things, Tribal Economic Development Bonds and direct-pay Build America Bonds.

The positive side is the bipartisan legislation for reinstatement introduced by 10 House lawmakers last week has a high possibility of being included in any infrastructure legislation that passes that chamber.

Municipal bond industry groups have been clamoring for advance refundings to be reintroduced as well as an expansion of PABs and direct-pay bonds.

Stephen Benjamin, mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, said P3s already work in metropolitan areas and dialogue needs to be opened with smaller cities looking at P3s.

Calculating the remaining useful life of a port or airport facility can be problematic, but the IRS ruling released May 3 supports a simplified method of making this determination using the date of the new agreement as a starting point.

While groups were encouraged to see a bipartisan meeting with Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, some fear munis could be hurt in the compromise.

In the coming months bond lawyers expect numerous municipal governments to issue new bonds to support investments in Opportunity Zones.

The clarification allows dozens of otherwise stalled housing projects around the nation to move ahead with financing that includes a combination of tax exempt multifamily PABs and the 4% federal housing tax credit.

The Public Buildings Renewal Act would authorize $5 billion in private activity bonds for the construction or rehabilitation government-owned buildings.

If the IRS fails to provide a regulatory fix, two members of Congress may address the issue legislatively in bicameral affordable housing legislation that had wide bipartisan support in the last Congress.

Midwest Fertilizer Co. announced Monday it has settled with the IRS Office of Appeals an audit that originally disqualified the tax-exempt status of $1.259 billion of refunding bonds that will be used to help finance a fertilizer plant in Posey County, Indiana.

Reps. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio and Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., are also drumming up support for the muni market's role in infrastructure finance.

The $11 million in tax exempt bonds that financed the construction of the K through 6 school are being paid off by the owner of the apartment building developed on part of the 1.67-acre site.

All four industry groups that submitted comments on the proposed rule requested a continuation of the practice that allows remarketing reissuances at a premium.