Tom Kozlik is Head of Public Policy and Municipal Strategy at HilltopSecurities. In this role, he advises the firm’s businesses and clients on the public policy, municipal market, and infrastructure trends shaping U.S. public finance and the economy.
Kozlik’s work sits at the intersection of markets, policy, and public finance. He develops municipal market commentary, public policy analysis, credit perspectives, and strategy insights for clients, investors, issuers, reporters, and public finance professionals.
His analysis focuses on how interest rates, inflation, federal and state tax policy, infrastructure needs, technology, cybersecurity risk, housing affordability, demographic change, higher education pressures, and state and local government credit conditions affect the way public entities finance essential services and long-term capital needs.
He regularly publishes commentary on municipal bond market conditions, public finance trends, infrastructure, state and local governments, schools, healthcare, higher education, housing, public power, transportation, water and sewer systems, and other sectors tied to public life. His work also examines the financial implications of fiscal policy, politics, elections, technology, artificial intelligence, data centers, public pensions, public safety, climate risk, workforce trends, and debt policy. Read his latest municipal commentary and insights here. You can also sign up to receive emails with new reports as they are published.
Kozlik joined HilltopSecurities in 2019 and brings over two and a half decades of experience in public finance, municipal credit, and investment strategy. He is frequently featured in print, digital, radio, and television news coverage and regularly participates as a keynote speaker, moderator, and panelist at industry conferences and events across the country.
Smith’s Research and Gradings has included Kozlik in the generalist, housing, strategist, and sell-side director of research categories of its Municipal All-Star Team. He has also been voted to Institutional Investor’s All-America Fixed Income Research Team, and Greenwich Associates named him one of the Most Helpful Analysts in Municipal Bonds. Kozlik has taught graduate-level public finance courses at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government, where he earned a master’s degree in Government Administration.
Areas of Focus
- Municipal bond market strategy, credit conditions, and investment themes
- State and local government finance, debt policy, and public-sector funding trends
- Infrastructure funding, public capital needs, and essential-service sectors
- Federal and state tax policy affecting public finance
- Interest rates, inflation, fiscal policy, and macroeconomic conditions
- Technology, AI, and the digital risk environment for public finance, including cybersecurity, data centers, digital currency, tokenization, payment modernization, and municipal market structure
- Demographics, workforce trends, public pensions, climate risk, and other long-term pressures affecting public entities
For Media, Speaking, and Event Inquiries
Tom regularly provides commentary on municipal bond markets, public finance, infrastructure, state and local government credit conditions, public policy, tax policy, interest rates, inflation, cybersecurity, technology, AI, housing, higher education, and the financial pressures facing public entities. Please reach out to Ben Brooks at ben.brooks@hilltop.com.
Read Tom’s latest municipal commentary and public finance insights here.