The Financial Services and Public Finance Group of McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC is pleased to announce that we are now able to assist issuers and obligated person clients in complying with their continuing disclosure requirements under SEC Rule 15c2-12.
Effective January 2, 2018, Penny Pollick has joined our team as a Continuing Disclosure Specialist. …
As we prepare to say goodbye to 2017 and welcome a new year, we thought we’d take a moment and revisit some of our favorite stories from the last twelve months that we’ve followed on the McNees Public Sector Blog.
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2018 will be a year of monumental tax law changes following the recent approval by the House and Senate of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming days. While the Act in its final form contains some provisions that hurt the tax-exempt municipal bond industry, many detrimental provisions included in prior versions of the bill were dropped.
Continue Reading House, Senate Pass Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; Private Activity Bonds Saved
After several months of negotiation, and amid a larger debate on gaming expansion, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed Act 42 of 2017, a sweeping gambling reform bill. For municipalities in Pennsylvania, Act 42 has two notable provisions, one of limited impact on municipalities hosting casinos and the other of potentially much greater impact.
Continue Reading Pennsylvania Expands Casino Gambling—What Is the Impact on Municipalities?
Last September, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down a vital component of the Commonwealth’s Gaming Act, known as the “local share assessment” – a section of law that provides local governments with a significant funding stream backed by an assessment on certain gross revenue from casinos located in or around their municipality. The court’s ruling, prompted by a lawsuit filed by Mount Airy Casino, located in Monroe County, put in jeopardy hundreds of millions of dollars in local funding for counties and municipalities across the Commonwealth.
Continue Reading PA General Assembly Attempts Fix to Local Gaming Funding in Casino Reform Bill
Chairman Kevin Brady of the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means today introduced the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” H.R. 1, and it does not contain good news for municipal issuers of tax-exempt bonds and private sector entities able to borrow on a tax-exempt basis.
Among other things, H.R. 1 would eliminate…
Monetization is the process of converting assets into economic value. Looking for options to generate greater revenue, municipalities and public sector entities have begun to consider the transfer to private operators of a greater variety of public assets than in the past. There has also been the development recently of more creative and profitable public-private partnerships.
Continue Reading Generating Value from Public Assets
There was a collective sigh of relief from bond lawyers across the country today, as the Department of the Treasury announced that it intends to withdraw in their entirety the regulations proposed by the IRS on political subdivisions, originally published on February 23, 2016. A copy of Treasury’s press release announcing the decision can…
In a Notice of Proposed Rule Making published September 28, 2017, the IRS announced new proposed regulations on the public approval requirement of section 147(f) of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C. §147(f). A copy of the Notice can be accessed here. The announcement should not come as a surprise – IRS representatives announced earlier this year at the annual Tax and Securities Law Institute sponsored by the National Association of Bond Lawyers that the finalization of regulations interpreting section 147(f) was a regulatory priority for the agency.
Continue Reading IRS Proposes New Regulations on Public Approval Requirement for Private Activity Bonds
A bill introduced by Representative Kate Harper (R-Montgomery) would impose a new public meeting requirement on municipalities considering selling or leasing their water or sewer systems. The bill was recently approved in the House unanimously, and has been referred to the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee.
House Bill 477 would require municipalities to…
