It also enabled them to attract new sources of capital to infrastructure investment including from public pension funds that do not receive a tax benefit from traditional tax-exempt debt and brought down interest costs by about 80 basis points on 30-year bonds.
Even with current debt ceiling negotiations and some market participants fearing it will bring the taxexempt status back on the chopping block, it remains highly unlikely that anything will change, given the dire straits some localities and states are in, the impact to public services and the dent it would make to the Federal deficit.