U.S. Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, a Maryland Democrat who leads the Municipal Finance Caucus, plans to introduce a bill later this month that would restore the tax exemption for state and local government bonds issued for so-called advance refundings. The new bill will be called the Investing in Our Communities Act.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has initiated a rulemaking process to establish a national ability to repay standard for R-PACE financing. PACENation has developed a stakeholder letter will be sent to CFPB on May 7. CDFA and PACENation encourage your support for this letter, and ask that you sign the letter today.

The complexity, breadth of geographic opportunities, and potential value to investors of Opportunity Zones, make navigation supports important. To attract investors, state administrators may need to offer coordination and interaction with investors and other OZ stakeholders. Investors may otherwise find it difficult to understand local context and identify attractive projects in certain communities.

For the better part of a generation, the dominant model for P3's financial architecture depended upon a trade-off between the cost of money and risk transfers. Typically, public entities that opted for a P3 approach understood that the financing costs associated with these projects were going to be greater than a traditional procurement using tax-exempt bonds. 

MRIC, which manages the Milwaukee County Research Park and its Technology Innovation Center business incubator, has contributed $100,000 to the fund, and has applied for a matching grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.'s Capital Catalyst Program for another $100,000.

Cities in the broadest sense — local governments, urban institutions, urban networks will need to act with deliberate agency and purpose if Opportunity Zones are to spur growth that is inclusive, sustainable and truly transformative for each city's economy. Given this perspective, it is clear that philanthropies have a critical role in helping cities realize the full economic and social impact of Opportunity Zones.

New Mexico plans to issue specialized green bonds as it borrows roughly $12 million to complete efficiency and renewable energy upgrades on a fleet of state buildings in the capital. The board of the New Mexico Finance Authority approved the additional borrowing to help fund improvements to about 30 state agency buildings in Santa Fe.

Municipal market advocates are focused on making sure that munis aren't hurt in the name of a bipartisan infrastructure compromise in the wake of President Donald Trump's meeting with top Democrats. Muni groups remain vigilant that the tax exemption or spending important to the muni market not end up on the chopping block to pursue a $2 trillion infrastructure plan.

One water rights attorney views the recently approved Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan as an opportunity for the municipal bond market. "Now that the agreement's been signed, everybody's looking at augmentation," said Paul Orme, a water rights specialist at the Arizona law firm Salmon Lewis & Weldon who served on a steering committee for the state. "I can certainly see a role for municipal finance in that."

Join CDFA and experts from across the country as we discuss creative solutions for responding to ReConnect's funding notice, and discover additional creative methods of financing rural broadband infrastructure.

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