- by Robert Crump The City of Chicago is scheduled to issue $346 million in General Obligation (GO) Bonds this week. The Refunding Series 2020A is a negotiated sale with J.P. Morgan as lead managers and a pricing date of January 15th. Series 2020A Bonds have a fixed...
Cities
Not All Cities Have A Pension Problem
By Richard A. Ciccarone, President & CEO of Merritt Research Services, LLC and Co-Owner of MUNINET, LLC The Top 21% of Cities With High Pension Funding Levels Deserve Attention and Usually Praise With so much well-deserved negative attention focused on cities...
‘Cities Challenge’ Offers Grants Large and Small for Innovative Community Builders
Knight Cities Challenge Accepting Applicants in Cities Across America Between October 10 and November 3, 2016, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications for their annual Knight Cities Challenge. A $5 million pool has been set aside in grants...
Featured Conference: The Chicago Forum on Global Cities
MuniNet's featured conference is the Chicago Forum on Global Cities, being put on by The Financial Times and the Chicago Forum on Global Affairs, June 1-3 2016, in Chicago, IL. Open to public registration, this event will bring together government, non-profit, and...
Assessing the Credit Quality of America’s Cities – Part Five: The Bottom Line
Due to its lack of accounting for infrastructure assets and all long-term debt and liabilities, including pensions, general fund analysis has limited utility when analyzing municipal financial health. By Richard A. Ciccarone By incorporating the...
Assessing the Credit Quality of America’s Cities – Part Four: FY 2014 Financial Condition
The most basic sign that a government is living within its means is that it balances its books at the end of the year. Traditionally, most city officials, experts, and observers of state and local government focus primarily on the general fund, usually a government's...
Assessing the Credit Quality of America’s Cities – Part One: Focus on Bond Ratings
How close to the fiscal distress edge are America's cities? This article, the first in a series, Assessing the Credit Quality of America's Cities, examines the financial health of cities against a backdrop of high ratings issued by the three major credit rating...