Naomi Jagoda

Government officials and pension board members need to be more vigilant about monitoring and evaluating the risks and costs of pension plan investments, given that plans have increased their reliance on riskier investments over the past few decades, according to a new report from two groups.

Two more Ohio school districts have disclosed they are authorized to redeem BABs they issued in 2010 because of reduced subsidy payments due to sequestration.

A report released by the chair of the Senate Budget Committee argues that tax reform should raise revenue by cutting tax expenditures that mostly benefit the wealthy.

State and local governments would have to disclose their net or total liabilities for other post-employment benefits on the face of their financial statements under new draft guidance approved this week by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.

Qualified 501(c)(3) bonds are a financing tool that can be used to grow nonprofits' clean-energy infrastructure and reduce their energy expenditures, the Clean Energy and Bond Finance Initiative said in a recently released paper.

A New York issuer has applied for relief under the Internal Revenue Service's voluntary closing agreement program so that tax-law violations relating to bonds issued for New York Medical College in 1998 can be settled.

The Internal Revenue Service has extended by two years the period in which an education nonprofit can spend the proceeds of qualified school construction bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office is arguing that the technical advice memorandum on the Village Center Community Development District in Florida should be applied retroactively.

A panel that advises the Internal Revenue Service will present reports next month, including one from the committee's tax-exempt bonds team on the treatment of management contracts.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is preparing to release a draft statement on other post-employment benefits that will "mirror" the board’s new pension standards, GASB chairman David Vaudt told government finance officers.

Now is the time for state and local finance officers to advocate for preserving the tax-exemption for municipal bonds, even though federal tax reform is highly unlikely to happen this year, market group officials said at the Government Finance Officers Association's annual conference here.

Kent Hiteshew, the director of the Treasury Department's new office of state and local finance, described the office's initial areas of focus and asked municipal government finance officials to provide input about how the office could be helpful.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has released a proposed statement that provides more guidance about how state and local governments should measure the fair value of investments for financial reporting purposes.

The District of Columbia will become the first jurisdiction in the United States to implement a social impact bond to finance services aimed at reducing teen pregnancy and increasing high schoolers' educational attainment, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray's budget and finance office said.

Industrial production fell 0.6% in April, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday.

State pension plans continue to face challenges despite the fact that their funded ratios are stabilizing, Fitch Ratings said in a report issued Wednesday.

Identical bills recently introduced in the House and the Senate would create a federal "Green Bank" that would be capitalized by bonds issued by the Treasury Department and would provide loans and other types of financing support for clean-energy and energy-efficiency projects.

Defined benefit pension plan promises in the public sector are not as secure as many had thought they were before the financial crisis, given that courts have largely upheld states' cuts to cost-of-living adjustments, a recently released report said.

Bond lawyers said that there needs to be clarity about the definition of a political subdivision in light of an Internal Revenue Service ruling from last year.

The federal government ran a $106.9 billion budget surplus in April, the Treasury reported Monday.