Bonds

President Joe Biden Monday signed into law a $1.1 trillion infrastructure package that will infuse billions into state and local governments. “We’re taking a monumental step forward to build back better as a nation,” said Biden at a White House ceremony attended by lawmakers, governors, mayors and others. “Things are going to turn around in

Louisiana voters on Saturday approved a constitutional amendment to change personal and corporate income taxes while giving a thumbs down to three other ballot measures including one that would have streamlined tax collections. Voter turnout totaled less than 14% on Nov. 13. Amendment 2 passed by a 58% to 42% margin, according to unofficial results.

Residents in the San Diego area and across the Mexico border in Tijuana, received welcome news when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to move forward on $627 million of investments in water quality projects. The projects, which will now undergo environmental review, will capture and treat sewage that routinely flows from the Tijuana

Gov. Phil Murphy’s surprisingly narrow re-election victory and Senate President Steve Sweeney’s stunning loss to an unknown resonated well beyond New Jersey. National pundits flagged the election-night drama, along with Republican Glenn Youngkin’s gubernatorial victory in Virginia over Terry McAuliffe and other developments, as warning signs for Democrats heading into national midterm elections. New Jersey

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has re-established two key advisory groups for its 2022 fiscal year: the Compliance Advisory Group (CAG) and the Municipal Fund Securities Advisory Group (MFSAG). The MSRB is also seeking input on topics it should consider in developing compliance resources and tools for municipal fund securities. In a November 11 announcement,

Municipal bonds were slightly weaker Friday inside 10 years, but trading was light and munis still outperformed U.S. Treasuries, which weakened further on the day from Wednesday’s large sell-off. Investors put nearly $2 billion into municipal bond mutual funds for the most recent week with high-yield reversing a downward course to hit $1.2 billion following

Two sets of teachers’ unions and a judiciary association filed separate challenges to a Puerto Rico Oversight Board pension law interpretation the board has said is necessary to enact of the Plan of Adjustment. The teachers’ unions filed in the final hour before the 5 p.m. AST Friday deadline that Puerto Rico bankruptcy Judge Laura

Raising the cap on state and local tax deductions to $80,000 from $10,000 would reduce the federal income tax liability by $55.9 billion in 2021, making it less concentrated among those with the highest incomes and making it $35.3 billion cheaper for the government than repealing the SALT cap altogether. That was the takeaway from

A federal judge in Michigan signed off on a $626.25 million settlement that resolves litigation over the state’s role in the Flint water contamination crisis, closing one chapter of the debacle as legal cases proceed on other tracks against former state officials and bond underwriters. The state sold $603 million of taxable bonds in June

A registered general securities representative has agreed to pay $10,000 to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority charges that he violated the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s fair dealing rule when he provided incorrect and misleading account reports to a customer. Antoine Nabih Souma agreed to pay the fine and be subject to a two-month suspension from

Robin Prunty, chief analytical officer, U.S. Public Finance at S&P Global Ratings, and Arlesa Wood, director of bond administration for Miami-Dade County, Florida, have been named the private and public sector winners of 2021’s Freda Johnson Award for Trailblazing Women in Public Finance. Along with Prunty and Wood, the Northeast Women in Public Finance have

Incoming New York Mayor Eric Adams has already heard calls from watchdog groups to boost New York’s new rainy-day account and fine-tune the policies controlling deposits and withdrawals. New York’s mechanisms are less defined than other U.S. cities’, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a report Wednesday. DiNapoli urged city officials to tap recent changes

It was a good day to be an issuer in the municipal primary market. With U.S. Treasuries rallying, municipals followed with triple-A benchmark yields falling as much as five basis points out long and more than $6 billion of new issues were digested in both competitive and negotiated markets, some deals seeing large repricings to

Cook County, Illinois, drew a rating upgrade and an outlook boost pushing early pandemic clouds further into the background as it preps a nearly $250 million refunding. The county will offer its general obligation refunding in two series: one for $202 million of tax-exempts and the other for $45 million of taxables on Nov. 17.

Municipals were steady on Monday as all eyes were on the more than $9 billion of supply headed to the primary in a holiday-shortened week. “The municipal market is focused on the number of deals being priced Tuesday and Wednesday,” a New York underwriter said Monday, pointing to the Veteran’s Day market close on Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Gov. Randal Quarles is stepping down from the central bank at the end of December, giving President Joe Biden another open seat to fill atop the powerful bank regulatory and monetary policy body. Quarles, a key architect of regulatory relief measures during the Trump administration, said it had “been a great

Moody’s Investors Service returned Chicago O’Hare International Airport’s outlook to stable as traffic levels rebound from last year’s pandemic-induced drop and the city slows its pace of borrowing for the facility. All four rating agencies moved the airport’s outlook to negative in 2020 as the pandemic crippled air travel. The three others had previously restored

Although 47 of the 61 Plan of Adjustment voting classes in Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy case officially approved it, including all bond classes, confirmation is not certain. Judge Laura Taylor Swain wanted a wide range of support for the plan from the voting classes and appears to have it. But it’s the judge’s decision on Act

Municipals were part of a wider fixed income market rally on Friday as high-grade yields were lower by as much as six basis points on the long end, buoyed by the stronger-than-expected October jobs data and upward revisions to nonfarm payrolls numbers for September and August. The rally sustained lower rates, a flat yield curve

The largest infrastructure package in United States history is headed to President Joe Biden’s desk after the House passed the $1.1 trillion bill late Friday. The House passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act by a vote of 228-206 late Friday night after weeks of intense negotiations. It’s been on hold since the Senate’s passage