With stories about stimulus and relief  from COVID-19 swirling, municipal bond industry groups are springing into action to help Congress and Treasury help us all. NABL sent a letter on Sunday to Congress and Treasury, asking for broad relief on a number of tax topics affected by COVID-19. The request is stated in broad strokes (broad strokes, as in “home run strokes” – be sure to read it), and more details on the…

Yes, The Thing touches everything. COVID-19 affects the muni bond world in some fairly obvious ways. The general mandate is “everybody do less.” Decreasing activity in general translates to decreased business revenues and decreased tax revenues, which means less money available to repay bonds. This has set the disclosure world ablaze, as securities lawyers ponder what to say to the market about the pandemic. That very practical question is far beyond the bounds of this…

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently advised that the Fed should maintain “constructive ambiguity” about the possibility of taking the Federal funds rate below 0% in an effort to simulate the U.S. economy during the next recession.  Given that current short-term interest rates in the United States are at near-historic lows, many believe that it is inevitable that U.S. monetary policy will replicate the negative interest rates employed in Japan and Europe…

Early in my career, I learned to dread telling people that I was a lawyer because when I explained the niche practice of public finance tax law, their eyes started to get sleepy, then their eyes started to glaze over.  That was usually when I would blurt out “I help finance airports, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure across the country.”  So when I came across the D Magazine article, The Tiny Town Bankrolling Texas Institutions during…

The IRS has issued proposed regulations that allow issuers to replace LIBOR rates associated with their bonds and swaps without triggering a reissuance of the bonds or a deemed termination of the swaps. The replacement rate must be a “qualified rate,” which includes the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). A rate isn’t a “qualified rate” unless the fair market value of the bond or swap is the same before and after the replacement, taking into…

Earlier this month, we described Senate Bill 1763, which would authorize a new type of exempt facility bond to be issued for “qualified carbon capture facilities.” Well, on July 19, 2019, freshman House Republican Tim Burchett of Tennessee proposed the Carbon Capture Improvement Act, H.R. 3861, the text of which is identical to the Senate Bill.[1]  However, unlike the Senate Bill that has bipartisan sponsorship, Burchett is (for now) the…