Tag: Chicago

CHICAGO HAD $41,100 IN DEBT PER TAXPAYER BEFORE COVID-19, SECOND TO NEW YORK

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-had-41100-in-debt-per-taxpayer-before-covid-19-second-to-new-york/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

A new report from government finance watchdog Truth in Accounting gave the Windy City an “F” for financial health. Chicago’s massive $36 billion net debt stems primarily from pensions.

Chicago city taxpayers were just hit with $94 million in property tax increases and $38 million in higher fines and fees, including a policy for speed cameras to ticket drivers for going just 6 mph over the speed limit, to help close the city’s budget deficit. City leaders placed much of the blame on COVID-19’s impact on government revenues, but a recent report from fiscal watchdog Truth in Accounting shows Chicago’s problems existed long before the pandemic.

Author(s): Justin Carlson

Publication Date: 11 February 2021

Publication Site: Illinois Policy Institute

Chicago Public Schools’ yield penalties hit fresh low

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://fixedincome.fidelity.com/ftgw/fi/FINewsArticle?id=202101291341SM______BNDBUYER_00000177-4f21-d760-a9ff-4ffdc0490002_110.1#new_tab

Excerpt:

Investors on the hunt for yield with few pickings scooped up Chicago Public Schools? junk paper Wednesday driving down the district?s yield penalties paid in the primary market to their lowest in years.

The 10-year in the $560 million sale that marked the Chicago Board of Education?s first COVID-19 era sale settled at a yield of 1.94%, a 117 basis point spread to the Municipal Market Data?s AAA benchmark.

The BBB benchmark was at an 89 basis point spread Thursday. The new-money and refunding bonds carried one investment grade rating and two speculative grade ones and while high yield investors snapped up the paper, Alliance Bernstein?s high impact social fund shunned the transaction. The fund said the district has failed to provide sufficient evidence it?s protecting students from in-school sexual misconduct in the aftermath of a scandal that drew a rebuke from the U.S. Department of Education.

Author: Yvette Shields

Publication Date: 29 January 2021

Publication Site: Fidelity Fixed Income

Editorial | Legislative lunacy

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-legislative-lunacy/article_967b0ad5-3d2e-544a-b7ae-83f75d384af4.html

Excerpt:

When it comes to politics and government, Chicago is a force unto itself. Its strengths and weaknesses are, mostly, of its own making.

But the city was recently victimized by the General Assembly, and it’s important for the people of Illinois to know why. What happened speaks to a serious problem — a Legislature seemingly untethered to reality.

…..

Unfortunately, state legislators voted during the recent lame-duck session to increase retirement benefits for 2,200 Chicago firefighters.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, as a newspaper headline put it, objected “strenuously” to the Legislature’s action.

She correctly described it as a “massive unfunded mandate to the taxpayers of Chicago at a time when there are no funds to cover this new obligation.”

Publication Date: 22 January 2021

Publication Site: The News-Gazette

Chicago Public Schools tees up first pandemic-era bond deal

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://fixedincome.fidelity.com/ftgw/fi/FINewsArticle?id=202101251653SM______BNDBUYER_00000177-3b58-d624-adf7-ff7a48da0001_110.1

Excerpt:

Chicago’s school district is heading into the market for its first COVID-19 era deal with a balance sheet shored up by federal relief.

The district is selling this week $560 million of tax-exempt, dedicated revenue-backed general obligation paper that carries two junk ratings and one at investment grade.

The deal offers $450 million of new money to finance capital work and $110 million of bonds that will refund 2006, 2009 and 2010 debt for savings with no extension of the original maturity. State aid is the pledged dedicated revenue on both pieces with other intergovernmental agreement-related revenue also pledged on the new money series.

Author: Yvette Shields

Publication Date: 25 January 2021

Publication Site: Fidelity Fixed Income

Original Publisher: Bond Buyer