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Illinois, the U.S. state with the worstfunded pension system, had the rating on its general-obligation debt cut one level by Standard & Poor’s and may face more downgrades. The change to an A rating followed state lawmakers’ failure to agree to reduce retirement costs during a special session Aug. 17. The outlook for the state’s debt, which now has S&P’s sixth-highest grade, is [...]
California Treasurer Bill Lockyer called on Attorney General Kamala Harris to investigate whether conflict-of-interest laws were broken at one of the state’s biggest issuers of municipal debt, a conduit for bond sales on behalf of local governments. Lockyer’s request follows a report by the state auditor that questioned the California Statewide Communities Development Authority’s use [...]
Pennsylvania, home to a quarter of all U.S. public pensions, has spent at least $2 billion since 1985 to help pay for managing the plans, including thousands that cover no more than 10 workers each. The subsidy has prompted towns such as Halfmoon and Elk Lick to set up even smaller plans, with fewer than [...]
Run. Hide. Fight. Add shooters to the hurricanes, floods, blackouts and other threats that governments prepare residents for after a man wearing a gas mask, ballistic helmet and vest gunned down dozens of people in a Colorado movie theater last month. A video titled “Run. Hide. Fight. Surviving an Active Shooter Event’’ produced by the city of Houston has gotten almost 900,000 hits [...]
New York City and Massachusetts are turning to a mixture of philanthropy and profit to fund projects tackling homelessness and inmate recidivism, using a program that can offer investors returns as high as 13 percent. It’s the first embrace in the U.S. of a public-private funding method known as social-impact bonds. Also called pay-for success contracts or social-innovation financing, the model allows governments to transfer [...]
Investors have poured the most cash since 2010 into the riskiest municipal debt, reducing the penalty on issuers rated BBB and prompting Invesco Ltd. to close its high-yield fund to new buyers. High-yield muni funds added about $1.1 billion in the five weeks through Aug. 8, the most since December 2010, Lipper US Fund Flows [...]
It was lights, cameras, farewell. California film executive Jimmy Lifton persuaded Allen Park, Michigan, to become a Midwest moviemaking hub, then left the Detroit suburb $31 million deeper in debt and, according to a state report this month, so financially stressed that it needs an emergency manager. Three years ago, hundreds attended Lifton’s announcement of [...]
Fresno, California, leaders insist that the state’s fifth-largest city isn’t going to go bankrupt. That’s cheering investors who bought its debt at a record low. Like Stockton and San Bernardino, California cities that sought court protection from creditors in the past six weeks, Fresno’s budget has buckled as labor costs rose while tax revenue lagged. [...]
The lowest municipal yields in a generation may help Rhode Island cut the cost of repaying $75 million it borrowed to lure former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s now-bankrupt videogame company from Massachusetts. Read more>>
