Taxable bonds

In Montana, two school districts and the state government reported that a new state law signed by the governor on May 6 will end the state tax deduction for certain school bonds after 2023 if those bonds are federally taxable.

With federal aid rolling out, the municipal credit picture is improving and issuers are coming to market at a faster clip. An infrastructure package could push issuance levels even higher.

The theme of low supply, positive inflows and the anticipation of higher tax rates led triple-A benchmarks firmer by one to two basis points.

The first quarter of 2021 concludes with $102.1 billion, slightly higher than the $95.3 billion that the market saw in the COVID-ravaged first quarter of 2020.

While acknowledging the critical assistance in the federal relief bill, yet in anticipation of the uncertainty ahead, further Congressional action is essential to provide state and local governments with additional tools to manage debt programs to meet the needs of their constituents.

Far West municipal issuers sold $99.1 billion of debt last year, a 16% increase from 2019.

Trade volume increased by just 4% compared to 2019 following a volatile year for munis.

From the use of taxables to forward deliveries, refunding deals drove an overall 15.8% hike in Midwest bond volume that exceeded the national average.

The prominent private university will add $600 million to corporate CUSIP deal numbers that recorded a more than 200% increase last year.

While issuance fell significantly from 2020, it was higher than January's and only the fifth time in 35 years that volume exceeded $30 billion in February.

Taxable deals and refinancings fueled the 2020 volume spike as issuers adjusted to the coronavirus. The pandemic still looms over 2021.

The deal was the largest in the authority’s history, with the lowest ever interest rate for one of its sales and netting a record-breaking $112 million in interest cost savings.

HJ Sims has used Cinderella bonds, tender offers and forward deliveries to help senior living clients refinance without tax-exempt advance refundings.

The taxable refunding will lower debt service obligations for the airport car rental facility, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, through fiscal 2025.

Taking advantage of low rates, the state's School Bond Authority is selling the largest bond issue in its history to refund outstanding debt.

The $136 million refunding is also backed by the state's appropriation pledge; a political dispute over how to handle unclaimed property was resolved last year.

Issuance dropped 26.7% in January, tax-exempt issuance fell 32.6% while refundings and taxables saw smaller declines. Part of the drops were due to the typical nature of lighter January issuance but also issuer anticipation of potential federal aid to combat the pandemic.

The Foothill-Eastern toll road authority in California made a tender offer ahead of a planned sale, and exchanged the bulk of the debt it wanted to refund.

With interest rates at historic lows and stock market returns at record highs, Tucson sees a ripe opportunity to issue pension debt.

This would be the Government Finance Officers Association's first best practice document on ESG.