Trends in the Regions

Since Gov. Ron DeSantis took office in 2019, Florida has paid down $5.3 billion of state debt, or about 25% of the Sunshine State's total debt.

Rural hospitals and clinics are closing in Wisconsin while Democratic Gov. Tony Evers battles the state's Republican legislature over Medicaid expansion.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said her public-private sector plan to build a strategic water supply will remain a top priority after a bill for financing failed to advance in the legislature.

One investor is offloading the debt, while another sees an opportunity.

The state's February general revenue collections came in $30.62 million below official estimates. but total collections for fiscal 2024 are $428.1 million ahead of forecasts.

The North Dakota Housing Finance Agency recently priced $189 million of bonds for its home mortgage finance program, a sector in which issuance has increased.

State lawmakers last week passed bills including stadium financing to boost efforts to lure professional baseball and hockey teams to Salt Lake City.

Boston is more dependent on property taxes from commercial real estate, and property taxes in general, than most of its large-city peers.

Washington state lawmakers approved a $14.6 billion two-year transportation budget, a $1 billion increase.

Six financial institutions may be placed on West Virginia's restricted list if they are found "boycott" the fossil fuel industry, Riley Moore said.

Some public colleges in the Midwest are facing budgetary squeezes paired with programming directives from state legislators, a departure from trends elsewhere.

The nearly $5 billion I-35 expansion has sparked a lawsuit from residents saying it would exacerbate the interstate's historic role as a racial dividing line.

An off year from municipal bond issuers in the Northeast in 2023 pulled the national volume numbers into negative territory.

"I think we are starting toward higher volume," said Raul Amezcua, senior director at Samuel A. Ramirez & Co.

Natural gas prepayment deals helped drive the utilities sector to top the Southeast in an overall down year for municipal bond sales across the region.

Larger deals, fewer issues: those were the overarching municipal bond sale trends, along with a surge in tax-exempt deals, across the Midwest in 2023.

Texas bond volume climbed 22.5% to lead the nation in a year when issuance in the eight-state Southwest region increased by only 0.6%.

The proposed $1 billion bond measure would fund port improvements needed to push the state's nascent offshore wind power industry forward.

The Turnpike Authority of Kentucky approved a resolution authorizing the issuance of up to $250 million of economic development road revenue refunding bonds.

Nearly half of America's private colleges and universities reported negative operating margins in fiscal year 2023, and the trend was even worse in the Midwest.