Infrastructure investors to cities, states: Borrow more, worry less

As extreme weather becomes more common and the federal deficit hits new records, the onus will be on state and local governments to finance the future of resilient infrastructure. The good news is they have plenty of capacity to take on the debt and retail investors are clamoring for the paper. That's the view of infrastructure investors speaking at The Bond Buyer's Infrastructure conference this week in Philadelphia.

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

Florida's Office of Economic and Demographic Research is warning of new fiscal challenges for the state government in coming years. Without changes to revenue and expenditure policies, the office, a part of Florida's government, projects a general revenue fund deficit of $9.8 billion by June 30, 2028, the official Long-Range Financial Outlook released Sept. 6 says.

Nominations are open for The Bond Buyer’s 2024 Deal of the Year awards

Bond ratings for a Texas city that defaulted on debt were downgraded by S&P Global Ratings for a second time since August amid amplified signs of financial distress. Clyde, a city of less than 4,000 in central Texas, also disclosed in a recently posted financial report the use of $1.255 million in unspent debt proceeds earmarked for capital projects to make debt service payments in fiscal 2023. "Use of those funds disguised the deficit cash flow issue relative to the debt service requirements," according to the report.

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.

Oklahoma’s issuer rating was upgraded a notch to Aa1 by Moody’s Ratings, which cited the state’s strong fund balances, low leverage, and conservative budget management.

Register now for The Bond Buyer’s California Public Finance conference, coming to San Francisco in October.

Kentucky’s issuer rating was upgraded to Aa2 from Aa3 by Moody’s Ratings. The move follows upgrades by Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings in 2023.

Municipal finance professionals are preparing for an important election in November. Follow The Bond Buyer's coverage of 2024 election developments.

The larger than expected federal funds rate cut on Wednesday caught some market experts off guard. "I was surprised by the size of the cut," said Vikram Rai, head of municipal markets strategy for Wells Fargo.? "I was expecting 25 basis points, but you can rationalize 25 or 50.? Muni investors have waited for this.”

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