On November 5, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in Davis v. Kentucky Department of Revenue—a lawsuit that threatens the continued existence of hundreds of single-state municipal bond funds, each of which holds a particular state’s bonds and caters to that state’s residents. The Supreme Court...

Many US municipalities and states are currently facing severe financial pressure. They have huge unfunded pension commitments, and recent forecasts of widespread defaults have resulted in a large sell-off of their bonds. This is not new. Financial history is full of instructive defaults by governments on their debt. Can these past crises teach us about what to do now?

The selective income tax exemption for home-state municipal bonds at issue in Davis v. Kentucky Department of Revenue is a barrier to interstate commerce.

Jefferson County, Alabama, may become the largest municipal bankruptcy in history. According to one of our panelists, “Jefferson County has to declare bankruptcy. The county needs protection from creditors, from bankers, from politicians--and from itself.” Having issued $3.2 billion in adjustable-rate sewer bonds, Jefferson County--in an attempt to hedge its...

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 5, 2007

As the Supreme Court hears oral arguments today in Davis v. Kentucky Department of Revenue, AEI Resident Scholar and former Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas economist Alan D. Viard offers the...

The selective income taxexemption for home-state municipal bonds at issue in Davis v. Kentucky Department of Revenue is a barrier to interstate commerce.

Viard is available to comment on the possible ramifications of the Supreme Court case Davis v. Kentucky Department of Revenue.

Amicus brief on the Writ of Certiorari to the Court of Appeals of Kentucky.