Featured Bond - Week of April 8, 2019: The City of Houston's $115 Million Hotel Occupancy Tax and Special Revenue and Refunding Bonds Overview Houston is issuing $115 million Hotel Occupancy Tax and Special Revenue and Refunding Bonds Series 2019 through its...
Municipal Finance – General
Fiscal Year 2017 Municipal Bond Audit Times Are Still Too Slow
Municipal Bond Audit Times Show Slight Improvement Since 2015 But Most Still Late to the Table -- The County, State and City Sectors are the Least Timely By Richard A. Ciccarone Municipal bond analysts and investors are accustomed to waiting a lot longer for...
Featured Municipal Bond Issue, City of Philadelphia PA Water and Wastewater Revenue Bonds
Featured Municipal Bond Issue, Week of November 12, 2018: City of Philadelphia, PA Water and Wastewater Revenue Bonds Series 2018 A — $275 Million This week, MuniNet features the City of Philadelphia. On or around November 15th, The City intends to issue by...
Growth in Public Higher Education Debt Outstanding Outpaces All Other Major Municipal Bond Sectors
Public Higher Education Debt Outstanding Has Grown by Over 80% Since 2007 Leading All Other Major Municipal Bond Credit Sectors by Richard A. Ciccarone Municipal Bond Credit Sectors -- Ten Year Outstanding Debt Trend Based on municipal bond credit sector medians, ...
Use of Foreign Trade Zones and Economic Development Projects to Help Deal with Financial Challenges and Lack of Sufficient Tax Revenues
by James E. Spiotto, Co-Publisher of MuniNet The new reality of tariff wars and 20% surcharges on foreign manufactured parts and goods The tax reform of 2018 created a 20% surcharge on foreign manufactured goods or parts coming into the United States. Recent U.S....
Cincinnati — Taking a Look at One City’s Approach to Alleviating the Burden of Pension Legacy Costs
Legacy costs, especially for mature cities, can carry a long lasting burden on the finances of municipalities challenged by massive unfunded pension liabilities and retiree health care costs. Those cities most affected by these burdens also typically experience high...
Evolution of Tax Policy in the Midwest States
Approaches to Taxation and Leverage in the Midwest, James Spiotto Addresses Tax Policy in an Ever Changing Economy In a previous MuniNetGuide article, James Spiotto addressed the demographic, economic, and debt characteristics of Midwest states, providing context for...
State of Illinois to Issue $920 Million in General Obligation Bonds
Featured Municipal Bond Issue, Week of August 20th, 2018: State of Illinois General Obligation Bonds – $920 Million The State of Illinois is issuing $920.2 million in general obligation bonds for the purposes of refunding certain outstanding bonds and to pay...
MuniNet Guide Featured Municipal Bond Issue: City and County of Denver, CO International Airport $2.3 Billion Revenue Bonds
The featured municipal bond is the City and County of Denver, Colorado, which plans to issue $2,276,100,000 in airport system subordinate revenue bonds the week of August 13, 2018. The bonds are being issued as a two series AMT and Non-AMT tax-exempt obligation, for...
Re-Assessing the Credit Quality of America’s Cities in 2017 – Part One: Examining Financial Health Against a Backdrop of High Ratings
Are Credit Ratings Reflecting True Risk? More than two years ago, MuniNet published a five-part series on Assessing the Credit Quality of America's Cities, intended to examine and create a framework to analyze the financial health of cities. With this first...