Jennifer DePaul

Maryland State Treasurer Nancy Kopp was awarded the 2012 Jesse Unruh Award for her outstanding service to her profession and her state.

Congress returns from its August recess this week after a month of campaigning and faces a laundry list of issues to tackle, including extending dozens of expired tax breaks and approving legislation to avoid a government shutdown after Sept. 30.

As state and local governments grapple with pension reform, a new report from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that there's more flexibility to reduce benefits for current public employees than conventional wisdom has suggested.

The South Texas Higher Education Authority Inc. has proposed paying IRS $438,243 under the voluntary closing agreement program to settle tax law issues over $255.8 million of student loan bonds it issued in 2007.

The IRS is auditing $98.5 million of general obligation refunding bonds that the State of Texas Water Financial Assistance issued in 2002.

One of the biggest investor concerns about unfunded public pension liabilities, is whether a government's payment obligations to retirees will compete with debt repayment, according to a Wells Fargo report issued Wednesday.

The U.S. is headed for a deep recession in the first half of 2013 if Congress fails to avert nearly $500 billion in tax hikes and federal budget cuts from the "fiscal cliff," the Congressional Budget Office warned Wednesday.

Investors interested in taxable munis were confronted with less supply in the first half of 2012 as issuance of the bonds fell more than 20% compared to the same time last year.

Issuers that can sell bank-qualified bonds took advantage of low interest rates to refinance debt during the first half of this year.

Four municipal market groups are urging the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to publish guidance on determination of issue price for tax-exempt, tax credit and direct subsidy bonds.

The IRS is auditing $219.49 million of revenue bonds that were issued by the Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority in 2006. It was informed of the audit in March but just disclosed it before issuing $159 million of new revenue bonds.

Despite several turbulent years and the gloomy outlook for single-family housing bonds, municipal bond housing experts are optimistic about the future of housing finance agencies.

Due to requests from market participants, Moody's Investors Service extended the deadline by one month for comments on its proposed changes for analyzing U.S. public sector pension data.

The IRS is auditing $100.89 million of state capital project bonds that the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation issued in October 2006.

The Internal Revenue Service granted an extension to an issuer so that it could correct a form it filed for multi-family housing bonds without jeopardizing the tax-exempt status of the bonds, according to a recently issued private letter ruling.

State and local governments are concerned the expansion of E-commerce, estimated at roughly $4 trillion, is eroding their tax base, according to a new Congressional Research Service report.

State and local public employee retirement systems' assets rose 14.6% or $325 billion to $2.5 trillion in 2011, for the second consecutive year of growth, according to a new Census Bureau report released Thursday.

States reported the smallest aggregate amount of tax cuts in 32 years with a decrease of $1.8 billion or 0.2% in the first half of 2012, a new report found.

A new report finds that state budgets face considerable challenges, including tackling pension funding, and have yet to see a strong recovery even though the recession officially ended three years ago.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Mark Mazur late Thursday by a voice vote to serve as the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for tax policy.