Bonds

Illinois’ rainy-day fund crossed the $2 billion threshold for the first time, following an $11.5 million deposit, the state comptroller’s office announced Monday. The fund has grown in size in recent years and now, at $2.005 billion, has enough money to run the sixth largest state for about 15 days compared to 2017 when it

Florida’s labor force grew by 0.2-percentage points in October while the state’s private-sector employment increased 0.3% and the unemployment rate remained steady, FloridaCommerce reported. “Florida’s unemployment rate remains at a low 2.8% and we continue to see job growth month after month, bucking national trends,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted Friday on X, formerly Twitter.

SK Battery America, a subsidiary of South Korean firm SK On, one of the world’s largest battery makers, is scaling back production on several fronts in response to a changing market for the vehicles. As an EV market turbocharged by federal incentives and high-set expectations cools off and major producers weigh cost-saving measures, SK said

It has been a good year for Jaime Alvarez. The 45-year-old was named Oregon’s director of debt management in October, after serving as deputy director/senior debt program manager for just under two years. A few weeks after his promotion, he found out the state’s March $989 million general obligation bond sale was named Far West

As the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act nears its second anniversary, the Biden administration is still striving to close the gap between awarding transportation grants and actually getting the cash to the states and cities that have won the money. Shortening that timeline remains a top priority for the administration, Federal Highway Administration CFO Brian

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson may have secured a short-term win in passing a “laddered” continuing resolution to keep parts of the government funded until Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, but the measure will likely create many more legislative issues and earmark the early months of 2024 for more dysfunction in the Republican-controlled House.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has extended the suspension of his state’s gasoline tax for another month amid sustained high fuel costs. Kemp cited “ongoing economic hardships caused by rampant inflation” Wednesday when he signed an executive order foregoing Georgia’s 31.2 cents-per-gallon tax on gas and 35 cents-per-gallon tax on diesel for another month through Nov.

The issuance of nearly $3 billion of debt for Oklahoma utilities last year has been drawn into the state attorney general’s probe of potential profiteering and other misdeeds stemming from a fierce winter storm in 2021. A subpoena dated Tuesday from Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office gives the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which authorized the debt,

Voters in Maine rejected a much-debated proposal to replace the state’s two largest power providers with a public utility company in Tuesday’s election. Question 3 on the ballot, which asked voters to approve the state takeover of for-profit power providers Versant and Central Maine Power Company and the creation of a non-profit, publicly owned utility

In a troubled world, booming demand for American military weaponry has left the country in need of billions of dollars more in armaments than it can currently produce.  West Virginia is trying to meet that need. Though its footprint in the national defense sector is small, representing just .1% of the $558.7 billion in defense contracts

A debate over Amtrak funding derailed the House of Representative’s fiscal 2024 transportation bill Tuesday as opponents, many of them Republicans from the northeast, criticized the bill’s deep cuts to the train agency. The House was set to vote Tuesday on the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development measure, one of 12 appropriation bills that GOP leaders

Texas ended fiscal 2023 with a hefty cash balance of $48.4 billion in its general revenue fund due largely to higher, but slowing tax collections, the state comptroller reported Monday.  The annual cash report for the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31 said the balance rose $14.6 billion or 43.4% from fiscal 2022. After transfers

Missouri has asked a federal court to toss a lawsuit filed by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association over the state’s first-of-its-kind anti-environmental, social and governance investing rules, arguing that the securities association lacks standing to bring the lawsuit. The dispute stems from Missouri’s four-month-old investment rules that require advisors and broker-dealers to disclose

With a huge airport bond deal potentially on the horizon, Houston Controller Chris Brown is concerned about bringing the debt to the market in the wake of a crackdown by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on compliance with state laws prohibiting governmental contracts with companies, including investment banks, that “boycott”  or “discriminate” against the  fossil

The Florida Legislature’s special session began Monday with lawmakers looking for ways to help residents cope with the rising costs of property insurance. Lawmakers will meet through Nov. 9 and will also debate ways to provide more help for the victims of Hurricane Idalia, fight anti-Semitism and bolster support for Israel while broadening sanctions against

States would suffer deep cuts in water infrastructure funding they receive through state revolving funds, which make up a significant corner of the municipal bond market, under a bill passed Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives. The fiscal 2024 Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations measure, House Bill 4821, totals $37.4

Washington is banking on its high credit ratings and strong demand on previous sales as it heads to market Tuesday with a $483 million competitive refunding.  The bonds will be auctioned in two series: $296.550 million various purpose general obligation refunding bonds, Series R-2024A and $186.225 million motor vehicle fuel tax and vehicle-related fees GO

A Pennsylvania company that operates three nursing homes is in default, and it’s a familiar story: staff shortages and a large slump in occupancy in the aftermath of the pandemic. Senior Choice Inc. failed to make interest and principal payments due Oct. 31 on its $15.9 million bond issued in 2006 by the Cambria County

Inflation-adjusted revenues of the 50 states were down 13.7% January through August compared to the same period a year earlier, the Urban Institute reported, but despite this states remain fiscally healthy, thanks to prudent use of recent surpluses, one analyst said. In nominal terms, revenues were down 9.7% in the period. August state tax revenues

A bankrupt Iowa hospital could ultimately end up in the hands of the University of Iowa, which submitted the winning bid in a reopened auction last week.  A hearing on Mercy Hospital’s sale to the university is scheduled for Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Cedar Rapids. Mercy Hospital in Iowa City filed a Chapter