Billion-Dollar Muni Deals a Rarity as Free Cash, Revenue Pile Up

But a more fundamental reason may be at work, which is that most of the nation’s 90,126 units of government -- the tally in the Census of Governments 2017 data -- don’t seem to like debt.

That may explain why they pay some of it off every year and why 31% of it will mature or be called by the end of 2026, according to a study by Municipal Market Analytics.