Center on Municipal Capital Markets

Austin's bat bridge and Lady Bird Lake view

Center on Municipal Capital Markets

Developing greater understanding, expertise and skills in the financing of our nation's physical infrastructure

The Center on Municipal Capital Markets (CMCM) at The University of Texas At Austin is the one of the only university-based center focused exclusively on municipal capital markets. Developing greater understanding and expertise in the municipal capital markets is critical due to the substantial amount of resources governments at all levels require to address their sizable and growing infrastructure needs. 

Given the size of these capital needs, the Center on Municipal Capital Markets educational efforts are especially salient due to the increasing technical sophistication of the municipal capital markets and the lack of specialized training most municipal finance professionals receive in their graduate education training.

Our mission is to enhance the capital market expertise and knowledge of undergraduate and graduate students, emerging and seasoned state and local government finance professionals and the public at large. CMCM achieves this through graduate and continuing education programs, experiential training, research and technical reports, and public outreach.

Capital markets enable government entities to raise financial resources for projects including:

  • Building schools
  • Highways
  • Hospitals
  • Water
  • Wastewater
  • Energy Systems

CMCM addresses the critical need for specialized training and research in leveraging government resources for infrastructure development and maintenance, especially in light of recent federal initiatives aimed at revitalizing infrastructure after years of disinvestment.

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Contact us

Email: lbjcmcm@austin.utexas.edu 

 

downtown Austin viewing the capitol from a distance

Mark Kim

 

 

 

"I applaud CMCM’s dual mandate of teaching undergraduate and graduate students about the critical role of the municipal securities market in financing this nation’s public infrastructure, as well as empowering government finance professionals with a greater understanding of the capital markets through continuing education, training opportunities and academic research."  

 

-- Mark Kim, CEO of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board

Taylor Lewis

 

 

"The best decision I made as an LBJ student. The program's curriculum gave me broad exposure to the fundamentals of public finance while also allowing me to hone my knowledge in the more specialized areas of governmental accounting, financial statement analysis, and the municipal securities industry."

 

-- Taylor Lewis (MPAff '20)

 

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Austin's Pennybacker Bridge at twilight

What We Do

CMCM has formed fellowship partnerships with government entities, nonprofits, public finance bankers, financial consultants and the credit rating agencies, providing students with valuable real-world experience. 

Dean's Certificate in State and Local Finance

State and local governments in the United States are often the primary providers of public goods and services to citizens, funded through myriad government revenues often with the aid of financing from the capital markets. The increased demand for government services combined with the continued reluctance of the public to substantially provide greater resources have challenged these governments' finances. As a result, many state and local governments have turned to novel fiscal policies, emerging financial instruments and/or alternatives to public provision of their traditional activities. The changing nature in the way governments finance and provide their goods and services necessitates better financial acumen among both government finance professionals and private and nonprofit sector specialists that interact, assist and participate in government fiscal and financing activities.

The state and local finance profession has historically suffered a supply/demand problem. That is, there has consistently been a shortage of people with the requisite budgeting/finance/accounting skills to satisfy demand from public, private and non-profit employers. This supply/demand problem results in students who possess these skills to be highly marketable professionals. The jobs that require the skills acquired in this certificate program span all three sectors (public, private and nonprofit) and all three government levels (federal, state and local).

The Certificate in State and Local Finance is open to any degree-seeking graduate student at UT-Austin interested in government finance. It will be especially attractive to LBJ MPAff students as well as dual degree MPAff students enrolled in UT's business, community and regional planning, law and engineering schools. By completing this certificate program, all students will be able to:

  • Understand core public finance issues related to the way governments spend, raise and leverage taxpayer resources
  • Interpret and evaluate basic financial documents to begin assessing the financial condition of state and local governments
  • Evaluate the ways state and local governments access the capital markets to meet their infrastructure and operating budget demands
  • Create a specific project finance plan to address a government's capital or operating needs
  • Analyze how urban economies work and the impact of various policy interventions at the local level
  • Assess rationales for public sector policies and actions to promote local economic development

More:

The dam at Lady Bird Lake

News & Events

News


 

The Austin skyline in view of the bridge.

New training and research center to leverage private capital for public infrastructure launches at UT

Oct. 29, 2024

The new Center on Municipal Capital Markets (CMCM) will train graduate students and host programs to educate professionals about how to leverage markets to have sufficient funding for projects they are pursuing. The importance of leveraging government resources for infrastructure development and maintenance has grown as recent federal initiatives aim to revitalize infrastructure after years of disinvestment.

Events


 

No events at this time.
Cars driving along a Texas highway at night

Who We Are

Faculty Fellows