Andrew Ward

SAN FRANCISCO — The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education agreed Tuesday to send out 5,200 layoff notices in the face of a $640 million budget deficit projected for the next fiscal year.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Oregon Legislature closed its February special session last week after approving $140 million of bond-financed construction projects — legislation that would enable the state to sell Build America Bonds — and a bill that expands the types of projects that can be financed with general obligation debt.

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved 100 layoffs and the elimination of 70 empty positions Tuesday to cut spending by $14 million.

Fitch Ratings cut its outlook on San Francisco’s debt to negative from stable Wednesday, citing sizeable budget deficits and low reserves. The rating on the city’s $1.2 billion of outstanding general obligation bond remains AA-minus. Fitch rates the bulk of the city’s $1.2 billion of appropriation-backed bonds one notch lower, at A-plus.

SAN FRANCISCO — Standard & Poor’s downgraded Los Angeles late Monday, citing slow action to resolve the city’s budget deficits this year.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council took an ax to the city’s workforce late last week, reacting to warnings that the nation’s second-biggest city faced budget deficits of almost $700 million over the next 17 months.

Leaders in the nation's second-largest city insisted this week they haven't slipped into the kind of political paralysis that has made it nearly impossible for California to balance its budget and that garnered it the lowest state credit rating in the nation.

The Oregon House last week unanimously approved a bill that would allow state Treasurer Ben Westlund to use Build America Bonds.

Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service downgraded Sacramento County yesterday, as California's eighth-most populous county prepared to sell $129 million of certificates of participation.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Oregon Legislature won’t send voters Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s proposal to change the state’s tax rebate law to bolster its rainy-day fund, lawmakers said late last week.

Vallejo, which declared bankruptcy in May 2008 and has cut more than a third of its police force since 2005, is struggling with a violent crime wave as it considers cutting its police force further to balance a budget that is still in deficit.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday told the City Council to agree to quick layoffs of public workers or face a “financial tailspin” in the face of an “immense budget crisis” in the nation’s second-biggest city.

SAN FRANCISCO — Two former San Bernardino County, Calif., officials were charged with bribery, conspiracy and corruption yesterday for their role in helping to approve a lawsuit settlement that was paid with $103.8 million of judgment obligation bonds.

SAN FRANCISCO — Oregon revenue collections continue to fall short of expectations, according to the state’s latest forecast.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Los Angeles Unified School District plans to sell $1.8 billion of general obligation bonds next week, forging ahead with one of the nation’s most ambitious school building plans as it cuts hundreds of millions of dollars from its operating budget.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa late Thursday ordered administrators in the nation’s second-biggest city to begin cutting 1,000 jobs to help close a $212 million general fund budget deficit in the fiscal year that ends in five months.

Vallejo could wrap up the biggest municipal bankruptcy since Orange County, Calif., by the end of the summer.

SAN FRANCISCO — Despite this week’s downgrade of the rail corridor that connects them to the nation, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are beginning to show signs of growth again, adding to evidence that the Great Recession is easing, analysts, economist and port officials say.

SAN FRANCISCO — Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority’s senior and subordinate debt yesterday, citing declines in trade volumes at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said California’s second-most populous city has no need for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in an op-ed article published in the San Diego Union-Tribune Sunday.