Andrew Ward

SAN FRANCISCO — San Diego, the second-most populous city in California, faces a $179.1 million deficit in its general fund budget for fiscal 2011 as a continued slide in tax revenue and growing pension costs force the city to consider its most painful cuts in public services yet.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Southern California Public Power Authority plans to bring $140 million of tax-exempt notes to market later this month to provide interim financing for one of several wind energy projects the joint-powers agency is working on to help utilities meet California’s aggressive renewable energy standards.

Standard & Poor’s upgraded the underlying rating on the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District to AA-plus from AA-minus this week ahead of a $15 million general obligation bond issue.

SAN FRANCISCO - Fitch Ratings upgraded $3.8 billion of San Francisco International Airport revenue bonds to A-plus from A Monday, citing relatively strong performance during an economic downturn that has badly battered most of the nation's other airports.

SAN FRANCISCO - San Diego County plans to sell $85 million of tax-exempt certificates of participation next week to refinance its main jail and courthouse.

Oregon Treasurer Ben Westlund this week appointed Laura Lockwood-McCall, manager of the state treasury’s debt management division, to serve on the board of directors for the newly formed Oregon Infrastructure Finance Authority.

The Los Angeles City Council, city worker unions, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last week agreed to a package of labor concessions that will close about a third of the city’s $405 million budget gap for the current fiscal year.

SAN FRANCISCO - San Jose, Calif.'s Norman Y. Mineta International Airport added a tax-exempt private-activity series to its commercial paper program last week as it began to take advantage of the alternative minimum tax holiday.

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge is pushing the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle its case against five former San Diego officials accused of securities fraud for failing to disclose growing unfunded pension liabilities to municipal bond investors.

CARLSBAD, Calif. — As economists debate whether the federal stimulus package has created the jobs and economic growth promised, municipal bond market professionals have little doubt that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has revived their market.

CARLSBAD, Calif. — The municipal bond market is slowly recovering from the financial panic of 2008, but it’s still a long way from healed.