CDFA is proud to announce that MassDevelopment Senior Vice President Steven Chilton is the recipient of the 2018 CDFA Lifetime Achievement Award. Chilton has 40 years of experience in the municipal bond industry, including as an issuer, investment banker, and municipal credit analyst.

The Republican co-founder of the House Municipal Finance Caucus is among the muni industry allies who lost their recent re-election bids. While a Democratic House likely means more favorable treatment of muni-related legislation, the cost includes the loss of some industry allies such as Rep. Randy Hultgren.

All eyes will be on interest rates as the calendar turns to 2019. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate a quarter point, to a range of 2% to 2.25% near the end of September, the third hike this year. Additional increases are also expected in the months ahead.

Regular news readers have seen the broad outlines of the results already—and many have likely taken deep dives into the nitty-gritty of state legislatures, county judgeships and other races. But how about the ballot initiatives? Voters in 37 states made decisions on a total of 157 statewide ballot measures, to say nothing of the city-level ballot measures many voters decided on.

The Oklahoma Affordable Housing Act was signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin on June 3, 2014. It allocates $4 million per year in state low-income housing tax credits. The credits can't be used in Oklahoma, Tulsa, or Cleveland counties. The housing has to be for people who make 60 percent or less of the area median income.

The complex financing structure will take advantage of New Markets Tax Credits, a small portion of equity offered through the crowdfunding service Small Change, and capital raised through the new Opportunity Zones tax incentive created as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed at the end of 2017.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Amazon entered into "late-stage talks" with three locations — Dallas, TX; Arlington, VA.; and New York City. Only days later, the New York Times reported that Dallas was no longer in the running and that the company planned to split its original HQ2 between the two remaining locations.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's CDFI Fund has opened the fiscal year 2019 application period for the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program. The CDFI Bond Guarantee Program responds to the critical market demand for long-term, low-cost capital that can be used to spur economic growth in low-income communities.

Novogradac & Company highlights the 2018 CDFA Volume Cap Report with a post focused on 2017 multifamily housing bond issuance numbers. In 2017, the 50 states and the District of Columbia reported issuing a record $15.3 billion in multifamily rental housing bonds, representing a 9.3 percent increase from the previous record. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting 39 projects in 16 states and D.C. to apply for Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loans. Together, the selected borrowers will receive WIFIA loans totaling up to $5 billion to help finance over $10 billion in water infrastructure investments and create up to 155,000 jobs.

Tax lawyers are concerned that a reorganization of Internal Revenue Service advisory committees could dilute the input of tax-exempt bond practitioners, though the IRS says the move will streamline and improve communication about tax issues.

Accessory dwelling units may become the next frontier for PACE financing in California. As the state grapples with a massive shortage of housing, ADUs, in which an apartment unit is added to a single-family home, are among the few potential solutions that lack widespread opposition in a state where the entitlement process for an apartment building can drag on for years.

Detroit is planning its return to the market by year's end with a $112 million issue that would mark its first stand-alone borrowing since its historic 2013 Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing. The city council has authorized a total of $255 million in tax-exempt bonds over the next five years to finance capital projects.

American communities are in need of a permanent financing tool that they can access immediately after disaster strikes, and CDFA is actively working with members of Congress to pass legislation that will create a permanent tax-exempt bond program for disaster recovery. As part of our efforts to find a permanent financing solution for disaster recovery, CDFA will host a webinar on November 14th at 2:00 PM Eastern that highlights the available economic recovery tools for regions impacted by natural disasters. Register for the webinar here.

During this installment of the CDFA // BNY Mellon Webcast Series, we will learn about some of the various financing options & ownership structures available to communities to provide and increase the quality of broadband infrastructure in the U.S.

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