Bonds

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board said local legislative approval would not be needed for enactment by the central government Plan of Adjustment, which, if true, would clear what observers consider the biggest remaining obstacle. The board laid out this position and several others in a Tuesday afternoon response to objections to its Disclosure Statement, filed

Chaos surrounds the vote count in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary with the city’s Board of Elections on Tuesday night acknowledging a major error in its ranked-choice tally under the new voting system. The board said it mixed in 135,000 test ballots with numbers it released earlier in the day. Those numbers had showed Kathryn

Illinois won a one-notch upgrade Tuesday from Moody’s Investors Service, action that turns the rating tide for a state stung by more than a decade of downgrades that left it one cut away from a speculative grade. Moody’s moved its general obligation and Build Illinois sales tax-backed ratings up one level to Baa2 from Baa3.

To emphasize the need for new tunnels connecting New York and New Jersey, U.S. Transportation Pete Buttigieg held up a heavy piece of corroded wiring at his Penn Station press conference. “This entire technology is really outdated,” he told reporters on Monday. “Pieces of it can literally blow.” Buttigieg and members of congressional delegations from

California and Mexico lawmakers signed an agreement Monday on a project that will speed up the movement of goods and travelers at a San Diego County border crossing. The State Route 11/Otay Mesa East Port of Entry project being built at a combined cost of $738 million is expected to halve the amount of time

Just three days before the start of a new fiscal year, Arizona lawmakers and Gov. Doug Ducey have agreed on a $12.8 billion budget that includes what they call the largest tax cut in state history. “We achieved a tax cut that will protect working families and small businesses, we’re paying off hundreds of millions

Municipal securities dealer groups said Friday they are opposed to the creation of a $20 billion Infrastructure Financing Authority as part of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework announced Thursday. Other public finance groups have varying positions. National Association of Counties spokesman Paul Guequierre said in an email, “Counties support federal investments in infrastructure using

Municipals called it a summer Friday with the secondary lightly traded and benchmarks little changed, even as U.S. Treasury yields rose, munis took a break from the relative volatility since the FOMC meeting midmonth. After a week and change of underperformance to U.S. Treasuries, where ratios moved higher for the first time since early in

Puerto Rico’s government may soon adopt a 24% increase in the island’s minimum wage, with local observers saying it would raise costs for businesses and actually cut employment participation. On Tuesday the Puerto Rico Senate approved a bill raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour from the federal $7.25 per hour. The Puerto Rico

A California bill that would require cities and counties to post on their websites how much police brutality and misconduct lawsuits cost them annually is gaining momentum. Assembly Bill 603, authored by Assembly Member Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, passed with a unanimous vote in the Assembly and is being heard July 5 in the Senate Committee

The Federal Reserve might consider an interest-rate hike from near zero as soon as late 2022 as the labor market reaches full employment and inflation is at the central bank’s goal, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said. “The criteria is that we have a sustainable inflation rate, that’s 2% or above, and

In Buffalo, about 400 miles away from New York City’s much-publicized mayoral primary, heavy political winds are blowing and they aren’t from any lake effect. India Walton, 38, a registered nurse and union activist, stands to become the first self-declared socialist to oversee a major American city since Milwaukee’s Frank Zeidler in 1960. Walton, an

Cook County, Illinois’ pandemic-driven fiscal wounds are on the mend with a surplus now expected this year and $121 million hole to close in 2022 that’s a shadow of last year’s $410 million gap. “It has been an exceptionally difficult last year but a combination of revenue bouncing back as the county opens up, federal

A change in how Moody’s Investors Service approaches lease-backed obligation ratings resulted in downgrades to six lease-revenue bonds supporting federal leases on privately owned property. The change in methodology came after Moody’s analysts realized the federal government had refinanced debt totaling $1.3 billion tied to six leased properties using an amortization structure that will result

Illinois moved closer to winning an upgrade thanks to budgetary steps in the right direction and a rosier revenue trajectory that Fitch Ratings recognized in raising the state’s outlook to positive from negative. Fitch on Wednesday affirmed the state’s BBB-minus general obligation rating — still the lowest investment grade score — and the BBB-plus assigned

With ranked-choice voting making primary night a mere opening act and throwing the New York mayor’s race wide open, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams led Democratic candidates with 31% on Tuesday night. It could take weeks for the city’s Board of Elections to determine a winner. The new system allows voters to pick up to

Municipals saw some weakness and yield pressure on certain primary deals in repricings following an up and down U.S. Treasury market. Triple-A benchmark yields rose on bonds 10-years and out with one to two basis point cuts to scales. New issues saw a mixture of bumps and cuts on Tuesday, reflecting a general spread widening

Gov. Phil Murphy and top New Jersey legislative leaders have come to terms on key middle-class tax relief and property tax relief measures in the fiscal 2022 budget. The agreement, part of last year’s deal to enact a millionaire’s tax, essentally begins a slow rollout of an overall budget bill, whih could pass later this

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said inflation had picked up but should move back toward the U.S. central bank’s 2% target once supply imbalances resolve. “Inflation has increased notably in recent months,” Powell said in written remarks prepared for his Tuesday testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, citing increases in oil

A coalition involving California Forward and the California State Association of Counties wants the state’s final version of the budget to include the governor’s Broadband for All proposal, not the legislature’s. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s broadband plan taps $5.5 billion from the flexible funding from the America Rescue Plan Act as part of his $7 billion