Naomi Jagoda

The Senate passed a budget agreement Wednesday which helps to avoid another federal government shutdown but also extends the cuts to the subsidy payments to issuers of Build America Bonds and other direct-pay bonds by two years.

The Federal Reserve will "modestly reduce the pace of its asset purchases," and beginning in January will buy longer-term Treasuries at a rate of $40 billion per month and mortgage-backed securities at a rate of $35 billion per month, the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement released Wednesday following the committee's two-day meeting.

Municipal market groups often at odds with one another are for once in agreement, with each telling the Internal Revenue Service that its proposed issue price rules are unworkable and would hurt issuers as well as the market.

Industrial production rose 1.1% in November, the Federal Reserve reported Monday.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $26.5 million of general obligation bonds issued in 2006 by the Johnston Community School District in Iowa.

Municipal bond market participants said the two-year budget agreement announced Tuesday by House and Senate Budget Committee leaders would extend by two years the cuts to the federal subsidy payments issuers receive for Build America Bonds and other direct-pay bond programs.

WASHINGTON — The federal government ran a $135.2 billion deficit in November, the Treasury reported Wednesday.

The Internal Revenue Service thinks that interest on $720 million of bonds issued by the New Hampshire Health and Education Facilities Authority from 1998 to 2011 should not be tax-exempt.

The leaders of the House and Senate Budget Committees announced Tuesday evening they have reached a two-year budget agreement, a step toward avoiding another federal government shutdown in January.

State fiscal conditions are modestly improving in fiscal 2014, but for many states, rebuilding "remains slow and somewhat precarious," the National Association of State Budget Officers said in a report released Tuesday.

Consumer credit increased by $18.1 billion, or 7.1%, in October to $3.076 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported Friday.

Washington State Treasurer James McIntire is urging the Internal Revenue Service not to adopt its proposed issue price rules, warning they would increase issuers' borrowing costs.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $23.83 million of Series 2007 variable rate demand bonds issued by the Colorado Health Facilities Authority.

The Internal Revenue Service has told Avondale, Ariz. that it believes $29.8 million of Build America Bonds it issued in 2009 do not qualify for subsidy payments because of tax law violations.

Twenty of the 52 initiatives outlined in the District of Columbia's five-year economic development strategy have been completed during the first year of its implementation, though bond and infrastructure-bank initiatives have yet to be completed, district officials announced Tuesday.

The Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear challenges from Amazon and Overstock to a New York internet sales tax law.

The Internal Revenue Service has chosen to audit $65 million of general obligation, limited tax, school improvement bonds issued by the Washoe County, Nev. School District in 2007.

An arrangement in which an authority issued bonds to finance facilities that are leased to a state would not cause the bonds to be private-activity bonds, according to a recent IRS private letter ruling.

The Fannin County Public Facility Corp. in Texas is negotiating with the Internal Revenue Service to settle a dispute over $30.78 million of revenue bonds it issued in 2008 to finance a jail.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun auditing $12.93 million of general obligation bonds issued in 2006 by the Brighton School District No. 27J in Colorado.