Municipal News & Jobs

Municipals were better across the curve with the largest bumps out long Wednesday, moving the 30-year down 11 basis points in two days, while U.S. Treasuries were slightly better and equities saw modest gains. … Buyers appeared to return to the market the past two sessions after the January correction moved yields and ratios higher. Secondary trading was up again on Wednesday and new deals were well-received. Secondary trading showed clear moves to lower yields, particularly out long.
Source: The Bond Buyer

The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act … sets aside over $42 billion for states to build local broadband networks in their unserved and underserved communities, many of them in rural areas. It also allocates $14 billion to continue to subsidize provision of broadband service to low-income residents; in this way inner city students can do their homework on their connected laptops at home, and elderly patients in rural areas can visit virtually with their doctors. … Generally speaking, private activity bonds, or PABs, allow private service providers to borrow funds from bond investors at tax-exempt rates to finance “qualified broadband projects” as defined in the new law. While PABs are issued by a governmental entity, the proceeds can be loaned to private service providers who would ultimately be liable for repayment of the PABs. A qualified broadband project is one in which the PAB applicant provides broadband service in an eligible census block group area that has speeds of not less than 100 megabits per second (mbps) for downloads and 20 mbps for uploads. In addition, once the PAB applicant finishes its buildout, it must be able to show that 90% of the residences and businesses that are able to receive the applicant’s new signal could not have received access to slower 25/3 mbps broadband before the PAB was issued.
Source: The Bond Buyer

The Federal Reserve could opt to raise its benchmark rate by 50 basis points if a more aggressive approach to taming inflation is needed, Raphael Bostic, president of the Fed’s Atlanta branch, told the Financial Times in an interview. Bostic stuck to his prediction that three quarter-point increases starting in March is the most likely scenario, though stubbornly high consumer prices may justify a more robust rate rise. The Fed typically increases rates in quarter-point increments. “Every option is on the table for every meeting,” Bostic said on Friday. “If the data say that things have evolved in a way that a 50-basis-point move is required or be appropriate, then I’m going to lean into that.  . . . If moving in successive meetings makes sense, I’ll be comfortable with that,” he told the newspaper.
Source: The Bond Buyer

What to do when your municipal electric utility is slammed by huge bills after the state electric grid failed to balance supply and demand? Bring in a new power-hungry customer to help pay off those bills. That’s what Denton, Texas, is doing. Now, the money it realizes from having Core Scientific as a customer will pay the town’s $7 million in annual debt service it has from the $140 million in debt Denton issued to cover the cost of power when the price of electricity from Electric Reliability Council of Texas, ERCOT, soared to $9,000 per kilowatt hour, said Tony Puente, general manager of Denton Municipal Electric. “We will get about $8 million net revenue from the utility that will offset that $7 million in debt service,” Puente said. Denton signed the agreement with Core Scientific in October. The company, which uses its facilities and technology for both hosted mining and self-mining of digital assets, is expected to start operations in March.
Source: The Bond Buyer