Public Finance
MLA’s Public Finance practice serves local, state, regional, and national clients in all areas of public finance. Members of the team have participated in public finance transactions in virtually every state in the country in transactions that total more than $84 billion in aggregate principal amount. These transactions enabled state and local governments, U.S. territories, and Indian tribes to finance, among other things, airports, water, sewer, gas, and electric utilities, roads, tollways, mass transit facilities, health care facilities, solid waste facilities, pollution control facilities, public and private primary and secondary educational facilities, higher educational and research facilities, student housing, elderly housing, multi-family housing, single family housing, hotels, conference centers, convention facilities, public buildings and infrastructure, park and recreational facilities, economic development projects, and downtown redevelopment projects.
Lawyers in MLA’s Public Finance practice serve as Bond Counsel, Special Tax Counsel, and Disclosure Counsel for states, cities, counties, school districts, public authorities, and other governmental entities, and as counsel to underwriters and institutional investors involved in these financings. Lawyers in MLA’s Public Finance practice have participated in a wide variety of governmental financings done on a tax-exempt and taxable basis, including those involving:
- various types of tax-supported and revenue obligations of governmental entities;
- short-term cash flow borrowings and structural deficit financings by governmental entities;
- lease and installment purchase financings by governmental entities;
- various types of floating rate obligations of governmental entities;
- commercial paper and bond anticipation notes that serve as interim financing for governmental entities;
- tax-exempt derivative products, including interest rate swaps, caps, and collars, grantor trusts, principal and interest strips, detachable call options, and inverse floating rate obligations;
- pooled financings for governmental entities;
- tender offers for governmental obligations;
- various types of credit enhancements and liquidity products, such as bank letters of credit and standby bond purchase agreements, insurance provided by monoline insurance companies, guarantees provided by property and casualty and life insurance companies, and insurance provided by federal agencies;
- various types of investment agreements for moneys associated with governmental obligations;
- conduit financings for non-governmental entities involved in the transportation, industrial, commercial, health care, housing, solid waste, utility, and educational sectors;
- land-based financings by governmental entities, including tax increment financings, special district financings, and financings secured by payments in lieu of taxes (or PILOTs);
- federal, state, and local incentives and subsidies for projects, including ad valorem tax abatement, new markets tax credits, grants, principal forgiveness, and credit support; and
- governmental obligations issued as tax credit bonds.
Lawyers in MLA’s Public Finance practice also frequently serve as tax controversy counsel in audits of tax-exempt obligations by the Internal Revenue Service.
Lawyers in MLA’s Public Finance practice have extensive experience in the tax law and the securities law of public finance, having served (1) as assistant branch chief in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, developing tax legislation and regulations on tax-exempt obligations; (2) as attorney-advisor in the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Tax Legislative Counsel, advising on legislation relating to tax-exempt obligations; and (3) as expert witness and consulting expert for the Securities and Exchange Commission in public finance civil enforcement proceedings.