Now 52, he pioneered a way of turning industrial development bonds into tax-exempt money market funds.

FORBES: The office-park deduction

The comments have local politicians looking to state legislators for some sort of guarantee program, says Buck Landry, a managing director at Morgan Keegan, a Memphis investment bank that dominates the market for underwriting tax-exempt municipal and local bonds in the region.

FORBES: Party's Over

Even with current debt ceiling negotiations and some market participants fearing it will bring the tax exempt status back on the chopping block, it remains highly unlikely that anything will change, given the dire straits some localities and states are in, the impact to public services and the dent it would make to the Federal deficit.

FORBES: Why Munis Still Make Sense In 2013, The Year Of Income