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COVID-19 crisis exacerbates need to lower state and municipal borrowing costs
WASHINGTON – The American Securities Association (ASA) today sent a letter to Ways and Means Committee leadership urging the Committee to further help states and municipalities overcome the financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 crisis by reinstating the tax-exemption for advance refunding of municipal bonds. Such a move would lower borrowing costs and shore-up balance sheets for communities across the country.
“The COVID-19 crisis has had a severe and negative impact on our national, state, and local economies,” ASA CEO Chris Iacovella wrote in the letter. “The ASA believes that one way to help these economies manage their finances more effectively is to reinstate a previously widely-used financing tool like tax-exempt advance refundings.”
“Advance refundings would allow states and municipalities across the country to lower their borrowing costs and take advantage of an unprecedented low interest rate environment while still honoring outstanding bonds that fund longer-term projects,” Iacovella added.
There is bipartisan support in Congress to reinstate tax-exempt advance refundings. In the House last year, a bipartisan bill, H.R. 2772, the Investing in Our Communities Act, was authored by Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger. To read ASA’s full letter to the Committee, click here.
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