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Foster Swift is a nationally recognized Bond Counsel and Disclosure Counsel firm. We advise and represent Michigan townships on all aspects of borrowing money and issuing bonds, and also public private partnership (P3) projects.
A new Michigan law allows some municipalities to issue bonds to fund unfunded pension liabilities or unfunded liabilities for retiree health care benefits. Before, Michigan municipalities had no power to issue bonds for those purposes.
Bond issuers should be aware that activities in the U.S. Congress may limit the value of tax-exempt interest to bondholders, with significant ramifications for municipal issuers.
Foster Swift is pleased to announce our new "PA 4 Team." - a team focused on helping financially challenged municipalities and school districts, emergency managers, bond trustees, and others understand and use Michigan’s recently enacted Public Act 4.
In his State of the State address January 19th, Governor Rick Snyder called for legislative changes to the statute governing the appointment and powers of emergency financial managers for financially distressed Michigan local governments and school districts.
There are two noteworthy developments in February 2011 regarding a possible revival of the federal Build America Bonds (BABs) program, as anticipated in our January 2011 Bond Counsel Corner article, "Updates on Federal Tax Laws Affecting Municipal Bonds."
The bill encountered controversy, did not progress, and died in the 2009-2010 session of the Legislature that ended in December.
A new law signed by Governor Granholm in December 2010 – Public Act 321 – may provide some relief for Michigan municipalities facing severe budgetary challenges meeting their payment obligations on outstanding bonds.
Many Michigan municipalities with outstanding bonds are subject to continuing disclosure agreements (CDAs) they entered into at the closing of their bond issues.
The Michigan Department of Treasury’s Michigan Municipal Bond Authority (MMBA) offers a variety of financing programs to Michigan municipalities.