Platte County, Missouri, bears no legal obligation to repay tax revenue shortfalls on a $32 million appropriation-backed industrial bond issue, a Missouri appellate court panel concluded in an opinion upholding a lower court decision. Platte County leaders decided in 2018 to not cover a $765,000 shortage in tax monies generated by the Zona Rosa shopping center in Kansas City. Revenues had been pledged to repay a 2007 Platte County Industrial Development Authority issue. The decision cost the county its investment-grade rating. The county said bond trustee UMB Bank NA’s demand that the shortfall be covered and its threat of litigation prompted its decision in November 2018 to file a lawsuit seeking a legal determination that it was not required to make up the difference. While appropriation pledges are subject to an annual decision by the sponsoring government, the trustee argued the financing agreement supporting the bond issue represented a legally enforceable promise to pay. Platte County Circuit Court Judge James Van Amburg in a May 2019 agreed with Platte County that it’s not on the hook to cover gaps in project revenues to repay the remaining $29 million of transportation refunding and improvement bonds sold through the authority.
Source: Bond Buyer.

The Federal Reserve approved a major shift in how it sets interest rates by dropping its longstanding practice of pre-emptively lifting them to head off higher inflation, a move likely to leave U.S. borrowing costs very low for a long time. The move Thursday won’t lead to a significant change in how the Fed is currently conducting policy because it had already incorporated the changes it formally codified Thursday. But the shift marked a milestone. Had the strategy been adopted five years ago, the Fed would have likely delayed rate increases that began in late 2015, following seven years of short-term rates pinned near zero. By signaling Thursday it wanted inflation to rise modestly above its 2% target, the Fed revealed how the global central bank principle of inflation targeting, widely adopted over the last quarter century, may have outlived its usefulness.
Source: Wall Street Journal.

The Federal Reserve looks likely to keep short-term interest rates near zero for five years or possibly more after it adopts a new strategy for carrying out monetary policy. The new approach, which could be unveiled as soon as next month, is likely to result in policy makers taking a more relaxed view toward inflation, even to the point of welcoming a modest, temporary rise above their 2% target to make up for past shortfalls. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is slated to provide an update on the Fed’s 1-1/2-year-old framework review of its policies and practices when he speaks on Thursday to the central bank’s Jackson Hole conference, being held virtually this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: Bloomberg.

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman and Beth Warren.