CDIAC California Municipal Debt Scraper

Scrape California municipal bond and debt issuances, disclosure documents, and default/distress events from the California State Treasurer's official CDIAC DebtWatch database (debtwatch.treasurer.ca.gov) — the state's public clearinghouse for municipal debt transparency, covering over 76,000 issuances and 100,000+ disclosure documents statewide. HTTP-only via CDIAC's public JSON data API. No auth, no proxy, no cookies.

What this actor does

• Six modes: search (issuances), byCdiacNumber (full detail + history), documents (disclosure PDFs), defaults (default & reserve-draw events), elections (local bond & tax ballot measures), melloRoos (Mello-Roos community facilities district annual reports)
• Rich filters: date range, principal-amount range, debt type, issuer type, issuer group, source of repayment, tax status, sold status, sale type, interest type, credit enhancement type, county, document type, event type, election type, election result, ballot measure tax/debt type, Mello-Roos retirement status
• Full financial detail: underwriters, bond counsel, financial advisors, ratings, fees, tax status, maturity dates, statutory authority
• Downloadable disclosure documents — official statements, bond indentures, trust agreements — rehosted to permanent, publicly resolvable URLs (the source's signed blob links expire in under a minute)
• Default & distress tracking — municipal bond defaults and reserve-fund draws, plus Mello-Roos CFD early-warning signals (delinquent special taxes, foreclosure activity, reserve balances) — a data set rarely exposed by commercial bond-data providers
• Empty fields are always omitted — no null/sentinel values

Output per record

Mode search / byCdiacNumber (issuance)

• cdiacNumber, issuer, issueName, projectOrSeriesName
• soldStatus, debtType, primaryPurpose, sourceOfRepayment
• issuerType, issuerGroup, issuerCounty, issuerCounties[]
• saleDate, closingDate, firstOptionalCallDate, finalMaturityDate
• principalAmount, taxExemptAmount, taxableAmount, refundingAmount, newMoneyAmount
• taxStatus, saleType, interestType, ticInterestRate, nicInterestRate
• enhancementType, enhancementProvider
• spRating, moodysRating, fitchRating, otherRating, creditRating
• leadUnderwriter, financialOrMunicipalAdvisor, bondCounsel, disclosureCounsel, trusteeOrPayingAgent, and other transaction-party fields
• totalIssuanceCosts and itemized fee fields
• relatedDocuments[], relatedDefaultEvents[] (mode=byCdiacNumber only — full issuance history)
• issuanceUrl — link to the issuance on DebtWatch
• recordType, scrapedAt

Mode documents

• cdiacNumber, issuer, saleDate, documentType, documentFileName, principalAmount
• documentUrl — permanent, publicly downloadable PDF link (rehosted; source links expire in ~60s)
• issuanceUrl, recordType, scrapedAt

Mode defaults

• cdiacNumber, issuer, issueName, projectOrSeriesName, issuerCounties[]
• eventDate, typeOfEvent, eventAmount, comments
• filingContact, filingContactPhone
• saleDate, closingDate, principalAmount, finalMaturityDate
• issuanceUrl, recordType, scrapedAt

Mode elections

• electionDate, agencyName, agencyCounty, agencyCounties[] (multi-county agencies)
• electionType (General / Primary / Local), measureName, typeOfTaxOrDebt
• measureText (ballot measure summary text), financePurpose
• yesPct, noPct, approvalThreshold (e.g. Majority, Two-thirds, 55%), electionResult (Pass / Fail)
• recordType, scrapedAt

Mode melloRoos

• cdiacNumber, reportingYear, issuer, issueName, projectOrSeriesName
• retiredStatus (omitted when active/not retired), agencyType, issuerCounty, issuerCounties[], taxStatus
• saleDate, closingDate, finalMaturityDate
• principalAmount, principalOutstanding, refundingAmount
• minimumReserveRequired, currentReserveBalance, capitalizedInterestFundBalance, constructionFundBalance
• specialTaxesDue, specialTaxesUnpaid, delinquentAmount, numberOfDelinquentParcels — CFD tax-delinquency early-warning signals
• foreclosureAmount, numberOfForeclosedParcels, teeterPlanParticipation
• assessmentDate, assessmentType, assessedValue, parcelTaxRollDate
• spRating, moodysRating, fitchRating, otherRating (as of reporting year)
• leadUnderwriter, financialOrMunicipalAdvisor, bondCounsel, trusteeOrPayingAgent, purchaserOrLender, filingContactFirmOrAgency
• issuanceUrl, recordType, scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byCdiacNumber / documents / defaults / elections / melloRoos
searchQuery	string	Los Angeles	Free-text keyword (issuer / issue / project name)
cdiacNumbers	array	–	Exact CDIAC numbers, e.g. 2020-1234 (mode=byCdiacNumber; also scopes documents)
dateFrom / dateTo	string	–	YYYY-MM-DD bounds (sale date or event date)
minAmount / maxAmount	int	–	USD bounds (principal or event amount)
debtTypes	array	–	Debt instrument type(s)
issuerTypes	array	–	Issuer entity type(s)
issuerGroups	array	–	High-level issuer grouping(s)
sourcesOfRepayment	array	–	Repayment source(s)
taxStatuses	array	–	Federal tax status(es)
soldStatus	string	Any	Proposed / Sold
saleType	string	Any	Competitive / Negotiated
interestType	string	Any	NIC / TIC / Variable / Other / N/A
enhancementType	string	Any	Insurance / Letter of Credit / State Intercept / Other / None / N/A
issuerCounties	array	–	California county filter
primaryPurposes	array	–	Primary purpose of the debt, e.g. K-12 School Facility, Water Supply (modes=search, melloRoos)
labeledDebtTypes	array	–	ESG/sustainability label: Green / Social Impact / Sustainability / None (mode=search)
adtrFilingStatuses	array	–	Annual Debt Transparency Report filing status: Filed / Past Due / Pending / Ended / N/A (mode=search)
localDebtPolicies	array	–	Whether issuer has a local debt policy on file: Yes / No / N/A (mode=search)
documentTypes	array	–	Disclosure document type(s) (mode=documents)
typeOfEvent	string	Any	Default / Draw on Reserve / Replenishment of Reserve (mode=defaults)
electionTypes	array	–	General / Primary / Local (mode=elections)
electionResults	array	–	Pass / Fail (mode=elections)
typeOfTaxOrDebt	array	–	Ballot measure tax/debt instrument type(s) (mode=elections)
financePurposes	array	–	Purpose financed by the ballot measure (mode=elections)
approvalThresholds	array	–	Required vote margin: 55% / Majority / Two-thirds (mode=elections)
retiredStatuses	array	–	Active / Matured / Redeemed / Other (mode=melloRoos)
agencyTypes	array	–	Agency (issuer) type, e.g. City Government, Special District (mode=melloRoos)
assessmentTypes	array	–	Property assessment method: Appraisal of Property / Equalized Tax Roll (mode=melloRoos)
sortBy	string	date	date / amount / issuer (for mode=elections, amount falls back to date sort — no amount field)
sortDirection	string	desc	desc / asc
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap (1–1000)

Example: recent tax-exempt general obligation bonds over $10M

{
  "mode": "search",
  "debtTypes": ["General Obligation Bond"],
  "taxStatuses": ["Tax-Exempt"],
  "minAmount": 10000000,
  "dateFrom": "2023-01-01",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: official statements for a specific issuance

{
  "mode": "documents",
  "cdiacNumbers": ["2020-1234"],
  "documentTypes": ["Official Statement"]
}

Example: municipal bond defaults statewide

{
  "mode": "defaults",
  "typeOfEvent": "Default",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: passed general obligation bond ballot measures

{
  "mode": "elections",
  "electionTypes": ["General"],
  "electionResults": ["Pass"],
  "typeOfTaxOrDebt": ["General Obligation Bond"],
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: active Mello-Roos CFD annual reports in a county (distressed CFD screening)

{
  "mode": "melloRoos",
  "retiredStatuses": ["(none)"],
  "issuerCounties": ["Riverside"],
  "maxItems": 100
}

Note: retiredStatuses values map to the "Retired status" dropdown — (none) is CDIAC's literal API value for "Active (not yet retired)".

Use cases

• Municipal bond research — screen issuances by debt type, size, rating, or issuer
• Due diligence — pull underwriter, bond counsel, and advisor history for an issuer
• Disclosure monitoring — download official statements and continuing-disclosure documents
• Risk / credit analysis — track municipal debt defaults and reserve-fund draws statewide
• Market research — analyze issuance volume by county, debt type, or time period
• Ballot measure tracking — see which local tax/bond measures are on upcoming ballots and how past measures fared

Data source & limitations

Data comes from CDIAC's public debtwatch.treasurer.ca.gov JSON API — an official, Swagger-documented open-data service the California State Treasurer's Office built for public and programmatic access to the state's municipal debt database. Coverage is limited to California municipal debt (CDIAC is the state-level clearinghouse; it does not cover other states). Mello-Roos CFD annual reports are searchable directly via mode=melloRoos. ADTR (Annual Debt Transparency Report) year-over-year line items and Marks-Roos authority/local-obligor sub-records are not exposed as separate search modes — the current-period ADTR snapshot (filing status, last-reported year, end-of-period outstanding principal, unspent proceeds) is already included on every search/byCdiacNumber record, and full nested history for a given issuance is flagged via additionalReportedDatasets; use the DebtWatch website for the full year-by-year ADTR/Marks-Roos ledger if needed.

FAQ

Does this cover bonds outside California? No. CDIAC is California's state-level municipal debt database; coverage is California only.

Why do document URLs look like Apify key-value-store links, not the original CDIAC URL? CDIAC's raw document links are signed and expire in under a minute, so they can never be embedded directly in a dataset for later use. This actor downloads each document once and rehosts it at a permanent, publicly downloadable URL.

Can I look up a bond by its CUSIP number? Not directly — CDIAC's public API is indexed by CDIAC number, not CUSIP. Use mode=search with the issuer name or project name instead.

What is mode=elections? It covers local bond & tax ballot measures reported to CDIAC — the agency, measure text, vote result (Pass/Fail), and approval threshold for California general obligation bonds, parcel taxes, sales taxes, and similar debt-authorizing measures. Election records have no CDIAC number and are not linked to a specific issuance.

How current is the data? DebtWatch is updated daily as CDIAC processes filings; issuances can appear as Proposed before their sale date and update to Sold afterward.

What is mode=melloRoos? It covers Mello-Roos Community Facilities District (CFD) special-tax bond annual reports — one record per CDIAC number per reporting year, including reserve-fund balances, delinquent/unpaid special taxes, foreclosure activity on tax-delinquent parcels, and assessed property value. These annual filings surface early-warning distress signals (rising delinquency) even for CFDs that have never had a formal default event tracked under mode=defaults.