Muni Bonds Sold by Phantom Agency Draw Texas Town’s Scrutiny
- Wisconsin authority sold $24 million of bonds for Hutto
- Debt financed commercial and residential development projects
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City officials in a fast-growing suburb of Austin, Texas, hired a law firm to review two municipal-bond deals sold through a Wisconsin agency to help finance residential and commercial development.
Hutto, Texas, population 30,000, hired bond counsel Norton Rose Fulbright LLP to examine whether the deals, issued in late 2018 and early 2019 through the Madison, Wisconsin-based Public Finance Authority are valid under state law and can be refinanced. In selling $24 million bonds through the PFA, the city and developers bypassed a Texas Attorney General’s review of the bonds.