Hultgren Cosponsors Legislation to Boost Community Infrastructure through Expanded Municipal Finance

WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 11, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren (IL-14) is an original sponsor of H.R. 2229, the Municipal Bond Market Support Act of 2015, a bill which would expand the use of local bank qualified bonds and allow local municipal governments and school districts to increase their use from $10 million to $30 million a year. He cosponsored a similar bill in the 113th Congress.

“Municipal bonds are a lifeline to Illinois communities looking to expand a high school or repair their infrastructure,” said Rep. Hultgren. “These tools of ‘fiscal federalism’ allow municipalities to raise their own funds tax-free, using their own expertise and avoiding the heavy bureaucracy of the federal government. If passed, H.R. 2229 would help a school investing in an infrastructure project in the range of $30 million save nearly $4 million in interest costs. We should expand this Main Street financing tool for municipalities intimately connected to the needs of their communities.”

Rep. Hultgren has made protecting municipal bonds a priority while in Congress. This year, Rep. Hultgren worked with Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) to lead an effort along with 122 of their colleagues (63 Democrats, 61 Republicans in total) to protect tax-exempt municipal bonds by sending a letter to House leadership asking them to reject any proposal to cap or eliminate the deduction on tax-exempt municipal bonds.

Previously, he held a Municipal Finance Roundtable at the University of Illinois at Chicago to convene expert panel of issuers, investors, credit analysts, and other market participants to discuss the most pressing issues facing the municipal finance market.