Peter Schroeder

WASHINGTON — The Joint Tax Committee has released revenue estimates for Obama administration budget proposals that would extend most of the stimulus law’s municipal bond provisions — including the higher qualified small-issuer limit for bank-qualified bonds — through the end of calendar year 2011.

WASHINGTON — Any congressional extension of the Build America Bonds program will likely come with a gradual drop in the subsidy rate, and lawmakers may never reduce the rate to the 28% the Obama administration proposed in its fiscal 2011 budget, the top lawyer for the House tax-writing committee told treasurers meeting here yesterday.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Charles Grassley is opposing the expanded bond provisions included in the jobs bill the House passed Thursday, arguing that the higher subsidy rates in the legislation will just boost profits for Wall Street underwriters.

WASHINGTON - Following the embattled Rep. Charles Rangel’s “leave of absence” from the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, Michigan Rep. Sander Levin, the next most senior Democrat on the committee, took over as acting chairman after California Rep. Fortney Pete Stark informed lawmakers this morning that he would not do so.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Charles Rangel’s resignation as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday fueled speculation among muni market participants about who will replace him, with Rep. Richard Neal the favorite of most muni market participants despite the fact that four other committee members have seniority over him.

WASHINGTON – House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., announced this morning that he will be taking a leave of absence from his position as the House’s top tax writer amid a flurry of ethics inquiries.

Two groups of tax attorneys last week urged the Treasury Department to modify its proposed regulations on bond-financed solid-waste disposal facilities to make sure they would cover all legitimate waste facilities.

An ethics report finding that House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel violated congressional gift rules is the latest in a string of bad news for the embattled New York Democrat, but it remains unclear whether this friend of the muni market will eventually lose his powerful position.

WASHINGTON — Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said they included provisions to halt the issuance of tax-exempt bonds beginning in 2011 in their tax reform bill to make the tax code fairer for all investors and to help offset proposed revenue losers.

WASHINGTON — ­Municipal market participants are still weighing the implications of a bill that would eliminate tax-exempt bonds and shift the muni market wholesale to a tax-credit subsidy, with many warning it would hurt state and local governments still recovering from the recession.

New tax reform legislation unveiled Tuesday by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., would eliminate tax-exempt bonds beginning in 2011, change the tax exemption for state and local bonds to a tax credit, and prohibit the advance refunding of bonds.

New tax reform legislation unveiled Tuesday by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., would eliminate tax-exempt bonds beginning in 2011, change the tax exemption for state and local bonds to a tax credit, and prohibit the advance refunding of bonds.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday agreed to limit debate on a $15 billion jobs bill that includes an expansion of the Build America Bond program and extensions of surface transportation funding. The motion for cloture was approved by a vote of 62 to 30 after 6:00 p.m.

The Internal Revenue Service’s attempt to provide answers to frequently asked questions about Build America Bonds led to even more questions last week, as bond attorneys worried that one of the answers appeared to ban any premium on BABs sold with “make-whole calls.”

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The Internal Revenue Service plans to audit some Build America Bond issues to determine if they meet the tax requirement on issue price, an agency official said here last week.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department Friday announced allocations to states of $1.4 billion of qualified zone academy bonds for calendar year 2010.

At least one Build America Bond issuer has had a subsidy payment reduced because it owed money to the federal government, and this "offset" system is entirely automated, market participants warned here yesterday.

The Internal Revenue Service has decided not to alter the tax-exempt status of $57.5 million of bonds issued in 2003 by the Illinois Health Facilities Authority, now the Illinois Finance Authority, after completing an audit that focused on two former board members who pleaded guilty to defrauding Rosalind Franklin University and orchestrating kickback schemes, the issuer disclosed last week.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department yesterday announced that it had allocated the second and final $1 billion tranche of tribal economic development bonds to 76 Indian tribes across the nation.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s proposal to lower the subsidy rate for Build America Bonds to 28% is creating investor uncertainty and could hinder the program, California Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned Sen. Barbara Boxer this week.