by Forest Donovan & Malek Moubasher

Biden’s multi-trillion dollar Infrastructure bill set out to drastically improve the quality of life for many Americans, but it had its fair share of issues, mainly identifying how the originally proposed 3.5 Trillion bill would be funded. After extensive negotiation, the bill is coming closer to. 1-2 trillion range, pending ongoing negotiations. The bill would address many issues ranging from upgrading our nation’s infrastructure, transportation, power grid, and many other social spending needs, but looks to exclude much of the original proposals spending on education and social focused needs. Once the infrastructure bill is approved, predetermined portions of the budget become allotted to states and their respective agencies, which then decide which projects meet their specific criteria to receive funding. Some agencies could also become recipients of direct federal bailouts. While this bill will be a tremendous step forward in addressing many of America’s social and infrastructural needs, can we expect it to solve everything?

Seeing as the infrastructure bill has continued to be slashed during negotiation, there will most certainly be projects which the Infrastructure will be unable to reach. One possible solution to funding these projects is Miro Muni Bonds. Agora Neos has developed an issuance platform built on highly flexible blockchain technology. It provides cities and communities with both mobile and web based services which give everyday retail investors the ability to purchase Micro Muni Bonds in denominations as little as $25. It will function with similar ease to investing on robin hood, or making a purchase through amazon. Our platform opens the doors to an investment strategy which previously wasn't widely available to the public. Micro Muni Bonds are an opportunity for citizens to diversify their investment portfolios, and become involved in community financing and decision making by choosing which impact projects they’d like to be funded. The low denomination of our Micro Muni Bonds, automation of their purchasing and sale, and inclusion into one’s city’s decision making process will substantially increase the scalability of city financing for impact projects, making readily available the capital municipalities need to fill the gaps of the beaten down infrastructure bill.

Our technology provides the digital infrastructure cities need to engage their communities, and market their impact projects to citizens through our comprehensive multi media campaign, which gauges citizens' interest, and screens them for purchasing eligibility. Once the project is approved, the city will advertise impact projects on their own individually branded issuance platform for citizens to purchase Micro Muni Bonds. The city will then set a predetermined date of maturity for the bond, and reward the investor with incremental interest payments. The bond is backed in full by the city, and the original purchase price is returned once it reaches the date of maturity.

Micro Muni Bonds provide an innovative and easy to use financing alternative for municipalities looking to raise capital for their much needed impact projects. Micro Muni Bonds are not subject to the spending restrictions placed on federal or state funding, and don't have the same tax implications as them either. Negotiations surrounding the infrastructure bill have continually alluded to the fact that funding if the infrastructure bill will partly be sought through increases in corporate and billionaire wealth tax hikes. Micro Muni Bonds function without the need for discussions about raising corporate or personal tax hikes, and provide an investment opportunity for citizens which is exempt from capital gains and income tax.

Our Micro Muni Bonds Platform provides a secure, profitable, streamlined alternative investment mechanism by which communities come together and address the impact projects. Micro Muni Bonds is the financial structure needed for a city to proactively address issues within their social, economic, and environmental problems. With ongoing negotiations surrounding the infrastructure bill, Micro Muni Bonds has emerged as an excellent solution for city financing, community engagement, and financial inclusion of its citizens. The heavy lifting is done by Agora Neos, the promotions, advertisements, sale and management of the platform is all taken care of. Micro Muni Bonds and FinTech are modernizing city financing, giving communities sovereignty over the projects they wish to tackle, and who is included in the process as well, ultimately democratizing the process of revitalizing the social and physical infrastructure of cities.