California voters say 'yes' to more than $40 billion of local school bonds

California voters were friendly to municipal bonds in Tuesday's election, with a few notable exceptions. The state's voters passed two separate $10 billion state bond measures and put their stamp of approval on at least $42.8 billion of local school general obligation bonds. Tuesday's ballot was the biggest for local bond measures in the state's history, said Michael Coleman, creator of CaliforniaCityFinance.com, which tracks local tax and bond measure results.

The people have voted. Now what? Follow The Bond Buyer's coverage of 2024 developments after Election Day.

Bonds are part of the plans for a transit sales tax measure voters in the Columbus, Ohio, region approved this week. Voters in the Central Ohio Transit Authority service area approved a sales tax measure with more than 56% in favor. The 0.5% sales tax in COTA's service area will increase to 1%. Chief Financial Officer Erin Delffs told The Bond Buyer that the authority plans to issue up to $500 million in sales tax revenue bonds, with the first series to be issued by the end of 2025.

From politics to disclosure to funding, the changing climate challenges muni issuers. Learn more in our Climate Spotlight 2024 package.

Municipals rallied Friday, fully recovering the losses from Wednesday's selloff. Triple-A yields fell nine to 15 basis points, depending on the scale, as investors flooded back into the market after the post-election selloff and FOMC rate cut. Those higher yields, which are attractive on a taxable equivalent basis in the very high-grade portions of the market, led buyers to step back in and take advantage to lock in yields in a way they hadn't in some time, said Justin Horowitz, a senior portfolio manager at Birch Creek Capital.

Watch what the municipal bond industry’s innovators and influencers are saying in our Leaders series of video interviews. Check out our lineup of future live interviews and archived conversations.

HilltopSecurites has hired Ari Kavour as executive managing director and head of structured finance and structured products. Kavour, who has nearly 30 years of experience in the finance industry, will seek to expand the firm’s fixed income and mortgage presence. He will also serve on Hilltop’s executive committee. “I am super excited and really looking forward to figuring out how I can help and grow the business,” Kavour said. Kavour joined Hilltop last month from Wells Fargo.?

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