MuniLand

A report from the Congressional Budget Office confirms what many people believe: Federal government workers earn more relative to private-sector workers. Chart via @mattyglesias

Good Links

Cato Institute: Total compensation for federal employees: On average 16 percent higher than in the private sector

Stateline: Creating jobs: What can a governor do?

Stateline: Infographic: How a European recession could hit state economies

MSRB: Full agenda at the muniland overseer’s quarterly meeting

Reuters: Muni board seeks to end “masking” of U.S. bond prices

Bond Buyer: The MSRB fully embraces its new role as investor and issuer advocate

SIFMA: U.S. municipal bond credit report, Q4 2011

Bloomberg: State of Washington is bringing the largest bond offering of the year

Bloomberg: Illinois faces “potentially paralyzing” $35 billion unpaid bill backlog

In the Great Depression, there were municipal defaults on a vast scale. Those defaults are brilliantly mapped here by Marc Joffe of Public Sector Credit Solutions.

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Bond Buyer: White House walks back idea to remove tax exemption from muni bonds

Bloomberg: S&P rejiggers U.S. local-government general obligation rating method

HuffPo: CFTC’s message to municipalities: caveat emptor

Morningstar: Assessing municipal closed-end funds performance

Fitch Ratings: Spreadsheet of 147 Fitch re-ratings of munis and TOBs

Dow Jones: Muni investors turn up nose at Glendale, AZ “hockey bonds”

An excellent map from Governing showing current state laws for mandatory school attendence. President Obama highlighted the issue of school attendance until 18 years of age in his State of The Union speech but 40% of states already have these laws.

+Good Links+

Council of State Governments: What was in the State of the Union for the states?

Bloomberg: U.S. state tax revenue exceeds pre-recession level, Rockefeller study says

Bloomberg ran an excellent article and video about the impact on the North Dakota infrastructure from oil drilling. The externalities are bigger than the cash revenues the counties and cities are receiving, and municipalities are unable to build out their infrastructure fast enough to keep up with demand.

Good Links

Bloomberg View: Why Singapore has the cleanest government money can buy

White House: 2012 ACA Progress Report: States are implementing health reform

Gov Tech: Police don’t like the Supreme Court decision denying warrantless GPS tracking

FT: New fixed income research rules coming from FINRA

ZeroHedge: A peak into the sell-side and inter-dealer bond markets

Bond Buyer: Muniland professionals see rates up and down for the year

SIFMA: Class time! SIMFA’s Municipal Bond School 2012

WSJ: City of Glendale, Arizona sells debt to cover NHL team losses

@Twitter Talk @stlouisfed St. Louis Fed  Economist’s new working paper looks at international trade by all 50 states bit.ly/zllvgK @MillerTabak Michael Pietronico  the “state of the union” could be perceived as the “state of taxation” on the “wealthy”…municipal bond demand should remain strong @MarketAxess MarketAxess  Prager: significant pressure on dealer inventories post-crisis #tabbfi @GreeneBarrett Barrett and Greene  State range of Medicaid spending per enrollee: Highest= Alaska ($11,569); lowest= California ($4,569) ow.ly/8EdBN @matthiasrascher Matthias Rascher  Governor’s Mansions Around the U.S. Sit Empty. j.mp/yoc8Lg @AtlanticCities The Atlantic Cities  Detroit, Atlanta, & Phoenix top the list of places with the most affordable housing stock in U.S. bit.ly/w9mSam @NYSenate New York Senate  Ask and ye shall receive. The #NYSenate‘s budget analysis, also known as the “White Book”, is now online:  tinyurl.com/7omdht4 @nbcchicago NBC Chicago  Illinois Supreme Court approves pilot program to allow cameras in trial courtrooms for the first time:  bit.ly/ycNiC4 @StatesAndCities Bloomberg State/Muni   BB&T Backs Down as Occupy Atlanta Resists Eviction of Inner-City Church: ow.ly/8Em08

@gov Twitter Government   @GovernorOMalley of Maryland hosts a Tweet-up for constituents.

Good Links

Governing: Previewing the 2012 governors’ races

Inside Higher Ed: State support for higher education slumps again

Bond Buyer: Muniland’s overseer takes another big step for pricing transparency

Bloomberg: Rally is done, and a big municipal bond supply should bring more attractive yields

Tom Kozlik, director of municipal credit analysis for Janney Montgomery Scott, talks on Bloomberg about the improving credit conditions of state government finances. He doesn’t have much comment on the historically low interest rates, though.

Good Links

Northwestern Mutual: Study on the cost of long-term care

AP: Illinois’s backlog of unpaid bills reaches $8.5 billion

Bloomberg: Moody’s lowers Connecticut’s credit rating to Aa3

MSRB: MSRB to make inter-dealer yields available on its EMMA website

Bond Buyer: Good but technical piece on muni/Treasury ratios

Bloomberg: Fracking market to grow 19% worldwide in 2012

ZeroHedge: “Don’t Frack Me Up”

Governing: DC, Colorado top list for LEED-certified buildings per capita

Commondreams.org: Texas water regulators are most generous in the country for private water companies

City and State NY: Cuomo attempts to cap nonprofit administrator pay at $200,000

An excellent, short overview of the problems public pension funds face, by Carolyn Presutti of the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Good Links

The Economist: Some public pension fund wonkishness

Reuters: States ask Congress not to impose any new unfunded mandates

Kaiser Family Foundation: Tracking states’ implementation of health insurance exchanges

U.S. Census Bureau: What states earned from lotteries and gambling

Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board: MSRB releases 2012 Rule Book

Bond Buyer: More muniland rule-breaking by Citi, Morgan Stanley and RBC

Bloomberg: States giving out “jobs development” funds and not always verifying results

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin made his State of the State address on January 5, 2012. He extolled the strength of the state after a deep recession, two spring storms and a tropical storm that devastated the state’s infrastructure. “I do believe that Tropical Storm Irene represents a defining moment in Vermont’s history,” Shumlin said.

Good Links

GAO Report: Municipal Securities: Overview of Market Structure, Pricing, and Regulation

LA Times: Gov. Jerry Brown’s State of State speech puts focus on big projects

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, possibly feeling left out by all the national attention state treasurer Gina Raimondo is getting, creates a promo piece for himself.

Good Links

Stateline: At last, a year for state budgets in which the sky is not falling

Pension Dialog: Another decline in state and local levels of public pension payments

Citizens for Tax Justice: Trending in 2012: destroying the personal income tax

Bond Buyer: Pay-to-play 2.0: Dealers underwrite school-bond initiatives, then get underwriting business

On Jan. 4, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made his State of the State address in which he outlined some ambitious new plans.

Good Links

Mother Jones: EPA releases a database of greenhouse gas sources

Stateline: 2012 sees states gaining fiscal stability with a few replenishing rainy-day funds

Reuters: States facing much smaller deficits, though challenges remain

Barron’s: Loop Capital says muni bonds are expensive relative to other asset classes