Investors are pouring a record amount of money into exchange-traded funds that focus on municipal debt even as the consensus on Wall Street calls for higher interest rates in coming months.

Individuals this year have added about $1 billion to ETFs that purchase state and local bonds, the fastest annual start since the funds started in 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The investment tools, which typically track indexes and can be bought and sold during the trading day, have taken on a growing role for muni investors, almost doubling in assets since 2010.

With local-government finances improving five years after the recession and the top federal income-tax rates the highest since 2000, investors are increasingly turning to ETFs as a way into the tax-exempt market. The 2015 inflow underscores that investors aren’t shying away from munis in the face of projections that the Federal Reserve will lift its benchmark interest rate from near zero, where it’s been since 2008.

They “have heard this cry-wolf call for so long,” said Vikram Rai, a municipal analyst at Citigroup Inc. in New York. “They’ve become a little jaded towards it.”