Special Briefing on the Muni Debt Boom: Record Borrowing Amid Budget Strains

Join William Glasgall, Penn IUR Fellow and Volcker Alliance Public Finance Advisor, and Susan Wachter, Co-Director of Penn IUR and Wharton professor and our expert panel as we address the record-shattering boom in state and local borrowing even in the face of federal spending cuts and pressure on budgets.

Total U.S. muni bond sales this year are more than 20 percent ahead of 2024’s record $498 billion and may reach or even exceed $600 billion, according to some bankers’ estimates. The borrowing wave comes as estimated state and local deferred infrastructure maintenance reaches more than $1 trillion and climate-related investment needs increase even as the promise of federal funding wanes.

How long the boom will continue in the face of conflicting federal and state and local priorities will be the big question for investors and governments over the coming year.

This briefing is the sixty-first in a series of sixty-minute online conversations featuring experts from the national research networks of the Volcker Alliance and Penn IUR, along with other leading academics, economists, and federal, state, and local leaders.

Special Briefings are made possible by funding from The Travelers Institute, the Volcker Alliance, and members of the Penn IUR Advisory Board. Recordings of the entire Special Briefings series are available on the Volcker Alliance or Penn IUR websites.

Be sure to subscribe to the Special Briefing podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeart Radio and more.

Subscribe to the Volcker Alliance newsletter and Penn IUR newsletter for advance notice of new Special Briefings.

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Matt Fabian is a partner at Municipal Market Analytics (MMA), an independent research and consulting group that publishes data, analysis, and commentary on the US municipal bond market. MMA subscribers include institutional investors, underwriters, bond issuers, regulators, and think tanks. Matt is frequently quoted in the national and trade media on a broad range of topics connected to municipal bonds. He is also a regular speaker at industry conferences and private events.

Along with Lisa Washburn, Matt authors the weekly OUTLOOK report, which covers credit and market structure trends and federal policy and regulatory developments. Lisa and Matt also write the weekly DEFAULT TRENDS report, which tracks and analyzes troubled and defaulted municipal borrowers. Matt is the principal instructor for MMA’s Municipal Credit and Strategy Masterclass, an asynchronous learning module that provides 20 NASBA-approved CPE credits on completion.

Prior to MMA, Matt headed up US municipal research and strategy at UBS in New York City. He was also a credit analyst at the monoline bond insurer FSA and at Moody’s Investors Service. Matt served as chairperson of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York and has received the National Federation of Municipal Analyst’s Industry Contribution Award.

He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Penn State University and a Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Fitzroy Lee serves as deputy chief financial officer and chief economist for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO). He was appointed to this position in October 2009. He served as chief financial officer of the District of Columbia from March 2021 to July 2022, when he was appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Council to serve out the rest of the term of the previous CFO. In this role, he managed the District government’s finances, including its approximately $18.4 billion gross funds operating budget, of which $10.7 billion is generated from local and dedicated revenue sources. He also managed the city’s $9.0 billion capital improvements plan budget. Lee began his career with the OCFO in 2001 as the director of Revenue Estimation.

Previously, Lee was an assistant professor of economics at Tulane University in New Orleans. Prior to that, he worked for the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he co-authored a paper on the efficacy of user-fees for funding the meat inspection program.

Lee has published papers on revenue forecasting and tax policy in nationally recognized academic journals. He has served as a member of the board of directors of the National Tax Association and the National Economist Club.

He earned his doctorate in economics at The Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University and holds a bachelor's degree in applied physics and computer science from the University of the West Indies (Jamaica).

Vikram Rai is the former Lead Strategist at the municipal division at Wells Fargo. In his assignment before Wells Fargo, Vikram was the Head of Municipal Strategy team at Citigroup where his role entailed developing macro and sector specific trading strategies by performing macro and fundamental credit analysis. In addition to Municipal Strategy, Vikram also led the Short Duration Strategy effort with a focus on money market instruments (USTs and Corporates) to optimize funding and returns while ensuring risk and liquidity levels for Citi’s institutional clients. He also covered ESG Strategy. Before joining Citi's municipal division in 2013, Vikram was a Mortgage and Rates Trader with a focus on Constant Maturity Mortgages (CMM), TBAs and Total Return Swaps (TRS) on Government Bond Indexes. Vikram was also Citi's liaison to the U.S. Treasury. He is frequently interviewed on TV (CNBC, Bloomberg) and widely quoted in print (WSJ, FT, Bloomberg etc.) Vikram has consistently been top ranked in the All-American Institutional Investor survey and the Greenwich Survey, in multiple categories.

Before joining Citigroup in 2008, Vikram worked for the hedge fund, Old Lane LLP in the private equity division. Vikram started his professional career as a microchip designer at Sun Microsystems and then worked in the same capacity at Oracle Corp. Vikram has an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago and bachelor’s in civil engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology, India. Vikram is a CFA Charter holder. 

Sheila A. Weinberg, CPA, is the founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, whose mission is to compel governments to produce financial reports that are understandable, reliable, transparent and correct. Since 2002, Sheila has led Truth in Accounting's research initiatives, which include "The Truth about Balanced Budgets: a Fifty State Study," the "Financial State of the States," and the "Financial State of the Union." Because of her expertise in governmental budgeting and accounting, Ms. Weinberg has testified before the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB), the Government Accounting Standards Board, and numerous state legislative hearings on matters of proper government accounting.

Ms. Weinberg earned her Bachelor of Accounting degree from the University of Denver, which she attended on an academic scholarship. She received her certified public accountant (CPA) credential in 1981. Ms. Weinberg was active in the Concord Coalition from its inception in 1992, and was honored in 1998 with their Outstanding Volunteer Award.

Ms. Weinberg is a member of the Association of Government Accountants, the University of Denver's School of Accountancy Advisory Board, the Illinois CPA Society Governmental Executive Committee and the Consultative Advisory Group for the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board. She has served as an independent legislative adviser to members of Congress on federal budgeting and accounting issues. She was also a member of the Comeback America Initiative Advisory Council, the Academy of Government Accountability Advisory Council and two FASAB Task Forces. She chaired the Union League Club of Chicago's Public Affairs Committee. Her commentary on the federal budget, Social Security, Medicare and other national issues has appeared repeatedly in numerous publications, including USA Today, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. She has been a guest on local and national television and radio shows, and is often engaged to speak on federal and state budget and accounting issues.

Mark M. Zandi is chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, where he directs economic research. Moody’s Analytics, a subsidiary of Moody’s Corp., is a leading provider of economic research, data and analytical tools. Dr. Zandi is a cofounder of Economy.com, which Moody’s purchased in 2005.

Dr. Zandi is on the board of directors of MGIC, the nation’s largest private mortgage insurance company, and is the lead director of Reinvestment Fund, one of the nation’s largest community development financial institutions, which makes investments in underserved communities.

He is a trusted adviser to policymakers and an influential source of economic analysis for businesses, journalists and the public. Dr. Zandi frequently testifies before Congress and conducts regular briefings on the economy for corporate boards, trade associations, and policymakers at all levels. He is often quoted in national and global publications and interviewed by major news media outlets, and is a frequent guest on CNBC, NPR, Meet the Press, CNN, and various other national networks and news programs.

Dr. Zandi is the author of Paying the Price: Ending the Great Recession and Beginning a New American Century, which provides an assessment of the monetary and fiscal policy response to the Great Recession. His other book, Financial Shock: A 360º Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion, and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis, is described by the New York Times as the “clearest guide” to the financial crisis.  

Dr. Zandi earned his BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania.