Project Information

Bid Title

Request for Proposals for Legal Services for Municipal Finance Transactions

Issuing Agency

State Government of New York

Location

New York

Published Date

Feb 6, 2026

Closing Date

Mar 20, 2026

Government Level

State & Local

Status

Closed

Original Source

Join to Access Full Details

Bid Inquiries

Join to Access Full Details

Bid Documents

Join to Access Full Details

Project Description

Request for Proposals for Legal Services for Municipal Finance Transactions

• RFP for Legal Services for Municipal Finance Transactions

  Download

Attachment Preview

Kathy Hochul, Governor

RuthAnne Visnauskas, Commissioner/CEO

Request for Proposals

for

Legal Services for Municipal Finance

Transactions

Issuance Date:

Submission Deadline:

February 5, 2026

March 20, 2026, 12pm, EDT

Number: HCR-RFP-260205

NEW YORK STATE HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

STATE OF NEW YORK MORTGAGE AGENCY

STATE OF NEW YORK MUNICIPAL BOND BANK AGENCY

TOBACCO SETTLEMENT FINANCING CORPORATION

641 LEXINGTON AVENUE ▪ NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10022

www.nycr.org

NEW YORK STATE HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

STATE OF NEW YORK MORTGAGE AGENCY

STATE OF NEW YORK MUNICIPAL BOND BANK AGENCY

TOBACCO SETTLEMENT FINANCING CORPORATION

641 LEXINGTON AVENUE ▪ NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10022

www.nyshcr.org

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................2

1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................4

2. Purpose ...............................................................................................................................4

3. Overview of the Agencies....................................................................................................4

3.1 New York State Housing Finance Agency ....................................................................5

3.2 State of New York Mortgage Agency ...........................................................................5

3.3 State of New York Municipal Bond Bank Agency .......................................................5

3.4 Tobacco Settlement Financing Corporation ..................................................................5

4. Assessment of Practices relating to Diversity and Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Business

Enterprises (“SDVOBs”).............................................................................................................6

4.1 Minority and/or Women Owned Business Enterprise Participation ...............................6

4.2 Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business Enterprise Participation: ............................6

4.3 MWBE and SDVOB Partner/Subcontractor Interest: ....................................................7

5. Calendar of Events and Milestones ......................................................................................7

6. Scope of Services (“Scope of Work”) ..................................................................................8

6.1 General Scope of Services ............................................................................................8

6.3 Disclosure Counsel and Co-Disclosure Counsel Services..............................................9

7. Questions and Answers...................................................................................................10

8. Amendments and Addenda ................................................................................................11

9. Contract.............................................................................................................................11

10. Proposal Requirements ...................................................................................................12

11. Contents of Proposals .....................................................................................................12

11.1 TAB 1: Proposal Coversheet, Cover Letter and Proposal Certification ........................13

11.2 TAB 2: Technical Proposal.........................................................................................14

11.2.1 Overview and Experience.................................................................................14

11.3 TAB 3: Cost Proposal .................................................................................................16

11.4 TAB 4: Administrative Proposal.................................................................................17

11.4.1 Insurance Requirements...................................................................................17

11.4.2 Financial Capacity............................................................................................17

11.4.3 Licenses, Certifications and other Credentials...................................................17

11.5 TAB 5: Diversity, SDVOB and Equal Employment Opportunity (“EEO”) Proposal ...17

12. Proposal Submission Requirements ................................................................................18

13. Evaluation of Proposals ..................................................................................................19

13.1 Preliminary Review ....................................................................................................19

13.2 The Evaluation and Criteria for Selection ...................................................................19

13.2 Scoring of Written Proposals ......................................................................................19

13.2.1 Technical Proposal Evaluation – 70 Points .......................................................19

13.2.2 Cost Proposal – 20 Points .................................................................................20

13.2.3 MWBE Scoring – 10 Points..............................................................................20

13.3 Interviews...................................................................................................................20

13.4 Selection and Notification Process ..............................................................................20

Proposal Checklist.................................................................................................................21

Exhibits, Appendices, Schedules and Attachments ................................................................21

W:\Shared Procurement Project Folders\Solicitation\2026\641 - Legal Services - Bond Counsel, etc\RFP\260205_RFP_BondCounsel_FINAL.docx

2

NEW YORK STATE HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

STATE OF NEW YORK MORTGAGE AGENCY

STATE OF NEW YORK MUNICIPAL BOND BANK AGENCY

TOBACCO SETTLEMENT FINANCING CORPORATION

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

FOR

LEGAL SERVICES

IN CONNECTION WITH MUNICIPAL FINANCE TRANSACTIONS (i.e.,

Bond Counsel Services and/or Disclosure Counsel Services)

IMPORTANT NOTICE: A Restricted Period under the Lobbying Procurement Law is currently

in effect for this procurement process and will remain in effect until approval of the Contract(s).

Proposers are prohibited from Contacts related to this procurement process with any employee of

the New York State Housing Finance Agency (“HFA”), State of New York Mortgage Agency

(“SONYMA”), State of New York Municipal Bond Bank Agency (“MBBA”) and Tobacco

Settlement Financing Corporation (“TSFC”) (individually or collectively “Agency” or

“Agencies”) or its Affiliates1, other than the Designated Contact Officer listed below.

Lobbying Law Designated Contact Officer:

Kathryn Mazzeo, Associate Counsel

New York State Homes & Community Renewal

38-40 State Street

Albany, NY 12207

Kathryn.Mazzeo@hcr.ny.gov

If you have inquiries regarding this request for proposal or would like to contact the Agencies

regarding issues not relating to Lobbying Procurement Law Contacts, please forward inquiries via

electronic email to contractunitinfo@hcr.ny.gov. The subject line of the email should indicate

“2026 Municipal Finance Legal Services RFP.”

1Affiliates shall mean the other agencies comprising New York State Homes and Community Renewal being the

Housing Trust Fund Corporation, New York State Affordable Housing Corporation and New York State Division

of Housing and Community Renewal.

W:\Shared Procurement Project Folders\Solicitation\2026\641 - Legal Services - Bond Counsel, etc\RFP\260205_RFP_BondCounsel_FINAL.docx

3

Further information regarding the Agencies’ Lobbying Procurement Law policies is available in

the Agencies’ Standard Clauses and Requirements for Solicitations, hyperlinked herein as Exhibit

A.

1. Introduction

New York State Homes and Community Renewal (“HCR”) consists of all the major housing and

community renewal agencies of the State of New York (“State”), including HFA, SONYMA,

MBBA and TSFC. HCR includes other agencies (“Affiliates”) not involved in this request for

proposals (“RFP”) process.

2. Purpose

The Agencies are seeking proposals from qualified law firms (“Firms” or “Proposers”) (“Firms”

or “Proposers”) in the State as the basis of re-establishing prequalified lists (“PQLs”) to serve as

potential bond counsel and/or disclosure counsel (“Legal Services”) to one or more of the

Agencies for various issues of bonds, notes, obligations, and other municipal finance matters.

Using the PQLs, the Agency may select one or more firms to serve as lead bond counsel and/or

co-bond counsel (collectively, “Bond Counsel”), in addition to a lead disclosure counsel and/or

co-disclosure counsel (collectively, “Disclosure Counsel”), on an as-needed basis for its

issuances. MWBEs and SDVOBs are encouraged to apply. The Agencies will make a

determination during the evaluation process of proposals whether an MWBE and/or SDVOB

applicant has the qualifications and experience to serve as (i) lead bond counsel and/or disclosure

counsel; or (ii) co-bond counsel/co-disclosure counsel.

This solicitation seeks to replace, not supplement, the Agencies’ PQLs for Legal Services

(excluding PQLs that pertain to legal services other than municipal finance matters). Accordingly,

firms on any existing Bond Counsel and/or Disclosure Counsel PQL must, if they wish to continue

to be pre-qualified, respond to this RFP. Proposals may be submitted separately for HFA,

SONYMA, MBBA or TSFC programs or may be submitted for all the Agencies collectively.

3. Overview of the Agencies

The Agencies are public benefit corporations of the State of New York, co-located and co-

administered from their New York City (“NYC”) office.

W:\Shared Procurement Project Folders\Solicitation\2026\641 - Legal Services - Bond Counsel, etc\RFP\260205_RFP_BondCounsel_FINAL.docx

4

The Agencies actively participate in the issuance of their respective bonds and the Agency staff

supervises each step of the financing process.

More detailed information relating to the Agencies and their respective programs may be found at

the Agencies’ website, hyperlinked herein.

3.1 New York State Housing Finance Agency

The New York State Housing Finance Agency is a public benefit corporation created in 1960 to

finance low- and moderate-income rental housing. HFA issues taxable and tax-exempt bonds to

provide mortgage loans to developers of affordable multifamily rental housing. HFA’s mission is

to create and preserve high quality affordable multifamily rental housing that serves communities

across the State of New York. Today, HFA is one of the nation’s most prolific issuers of

multifamily housing bonds.

3.2 State of New York Mortgage Agency

The State of New York Mortgage Agency is a public benefit corporation, created in 1970, to

provide single-family homeownership opportunities for low- to moderate-income New Yorkers.

The Agency funds its mortgage lending activities through the issuance of taxable and tax-exempt

bonds under two resolutions: (i) The Homeowner Mortgage Revenue Bond Resolution and (ii)

Mortgage Revenue Bond Resolution. The Agency is the only State issuer of single-family housing

bonds. In 2025, the Agency issued over $385 million in bonds and funded over 1,384 mortgages.

Together with HFA, the two agencies combined were one of the top four largest housing issuers

in the nation last year.

3.3 State of New York Municipal Bond Bank Agency

The State of New York Municipal Bond Bank Agency was created in 1972 as a public benefit

corporation to help municipalities gain access to the capital markets. MBBA has the authority to

issue bonds and use the proceeds to purchase bonds and notes issued by local governments to

finance public improvements.

3.4 Tobacco Settlement Financing Corporation

The Tobacco Settlement Financing Corporation, created in 2003 as a subsidiary of MBBA, to

purchase all or a portion of New York State’s share of the Tobacco Settlement Revenues. TSFC

has no bonds outstanding.

W:\Shared Procurement Project Folders\Solicitation\2026\641 - Legal Services - Bond Counsel, etc\RFP\260205_RFP_BondCounsel_FINAL.docx

5

Commodity Codes

• NAICS 541110Offices of Lawyers

* Disclaimer: Government BidHub provides information on bids, RFPs (Requests for Proposals), and RFQs (Requests for Qualifications) solely for convenience and informational purposes. This site is not an official public notice board. For official details, responses, or inquiries, please contact the relevant government agency directly.