Special revenue bonds resource recovery pool bonds, stadium bonds.

Thomas Buckmeyer of Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. was elected the first team All-American Special Revenue bond analyst.

At Smith Barney for the past 10 years, Mr. Buckmeyer is a vice president in municipal research. He is chairman of the Public Securities Associations credit research committee and a member of the NFMA.

Mark Piliero of Lehman Brothers, the first team analyst in the category last year, was the second team All-American in 1992. Mr. Piliero was close to Mr. Buckmeyer in the voting, with several lead changes during the balloting process, and Lehman's team finished third.

The special revenue bonds category includes a variety of issues backed by pledges of revenues from a wide range of sources. For example, in the special revenue bond category an analyst may be asked by an institutional investor for help in understanding a small deal backed by fire truck leases.

He devotes most of his time to analyzing resource-recovery bond issues, as well as student loan issues; the volume in these areas is large enough that Smith Barney clients frequently call him about secondary market issues. "Given the complexity of these issues, it's not surprising that these bonds tend to yield more than other municipal bonds of similar credit quality and/or maturity," Mr. Buckmeyer added.

Mr. Buckmeyer published "An Investors Guide to Resource Recovery Bonds" that detailed the sector's key credit quality concerns. "Resource recovery bonds are really a hybrid security in the sense that credit quality depends upon the municipal service area as well as the ability of private corporate vendors to operate the plant safely," he said.

Additionally, regulation at the federal, state, and local levels plays an important role in his analysis of the sector.

Mr. Buckmeyer's top team placement was attributed by fellow analysts to his report on resource-recovery projects. "It was an excellent report," said Donna LoCascio of DLJ.

"Publishing really quality reports takes a lot of time but they make a difference and you do earn recognition from the investment community," Mr. Buckmeyer said.

In the resource-recovery area, he expects the municipal bond industry may start to see an uptick in issuance. This increase will be driven by the fact that many communities will discover recycling is a lot more expensive than anticipated and the track records of plant operators are now becoming well established. "Once people become more comfortable with the safety of resource recovery plants we may see more plants become planned," he said.

Student loan revenue bond volume continues to be brisk because of refunding of fixed-rate and variable-rate debt. Additionally, investor appetite for the paper has increased over the past 18 months, Mr. Buckmeyer reports.

The higher volume, and investors' willingness to consider purchasing the securities has enabled Mr. Buckmeyer to do more work educating institutional investors: "I will meet with institutional investors to review specific transactions they are reviewing for purchase both in the primary and secondary markets."

He noted negative press reports have peaked investors' concerns over the past year, but after discussing the issues with investors, they have become more comfortable with the sector.

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