The Week in Public Finance will be back in full next week. Meanwhile, here are some of the stories we're tracking:
• A new report from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government revealed that state tax revenues had declined in the second quarter of 2016. According to the report, "this weakening raises a yellow flag for state budgets," which Moody's Investors Services warns could force legislators to consider budget-cutting measures.
• The "dark store" strategy has spread to Alabama. Last week, the home-improvement chain Lowe's filed lawsuits seeking value reductions for 27 stores in the state. Lowe's wants its properties to be valued as if they were empty, a move that is undermining local government funding streams. Earlier this month, Liz Farmer wrote about the emerging practice in Michigan.
• California Treasurer John Chiang has suspended Wells Fargo from underwriting state bonds, citing its mushrooming fake-accounts scandal. "How can I continue to entrust the public's money to an organization which has shown such little regard for the legions of Californians who have placed their financial well-being in its care?" Chiang asked in a letter to Wells Fargo's board of directors. New York City and Connecticut are considering similar actions, according to The Bond Buyer.
• Human services have social impact bonds (also known as pay for success initiatives), and now utilities have environmental impact bonds (EIB). DC Water issued the nation's first EIB to fund its Clean Rivers Project, a $2.6 billion program to control stormwater runoff and improve the district's water quality. The innovative financing technique works whereby DC Water pays to install the green infrastructure, but the performance risk of the upgrades is shared by DC Water and its investors.
• Prop. 13 is great -- if you're wealthy, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. They reached this conclusion based on data from a report the California Legislative Analyst's Office released last week. It looks back at the 1978 initiative, which capped property tax increases to 2 percent per year and restricted the ability of governments to raise or impose taxes without a vote.
• "The answer is not blowing in the wind," reports the Los Angeles Times. Wyoming tried, but failed to raise the state wind energy production tax -- the only such tax in the nation. The proposal meant staunch resistance from wind energy advocates and, without its approval, leaves the state in search of new ideas to balance its budget.
• The pressure keeps growing on North Carolina to repeal HB2, its law limiting LGBT protections against discrimination. The Associated Press reports that some 60 investors representing $2.1 trillion in managed assets joined the NCAA, entertainers and more than 200 businesses in calling for it to be rolled back.
• The news keeps getting worse in West Virginia. Fitch Ratings downgraded the state's credit rating from AA-plus to AA, citing the "state's economic and fiscal challenges that have reduced its financial flexibility, and are expected by Fitch to continue over the next several years." Standard and Poor's also downgraded the state's bond rating in April.
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