Rich Saskal is a managing editor of The Bond Buyer. Since joining the publication in 2003, he has also worked as a reporter and as its Far West bureau chief. He has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Colorado and a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia.
- California
SAN FRANCISCO — California plans one of the biggest long-term tax-exempt bond offerings of the year next week, $3 billion of sales tax-backed economic recovery bonds in a deal created to restructure the state’s outstanding deficit bonds to account for unexpected weakness in sales tax revenue.
October 22 - California
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — While the “California Dream” was evoked frequently, panelists at this week’s Milken Institute State of the State Conference were more apt to talk about saving the dream than celebrating it.
October 22 -
As it had promised for weeks, the California Redevelopment Association Tuesday filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court to stop a $2.05 billion shift of redevelopment funds from local agencies to help balance the state general fund.
October 22 - California
California political leaders continue to deliberate over a potential water infrastructure package, but they were not ready to bring it to a vote this week as had been expected.
October 22 - California
In a year when California’s budget writers have borrowed almost $2 billion of local governments’ property tax revenues, and ordered a permanent shift of more than $2 billion in redevelopment funds, their advocates have prepared a ballot measure that would bar such actions in the future.
October 22 - Washington
SAN FRANCISCO — Count Washington Treasurer James McIntire as satisfied with his inaugural venture into Build America Bonds, as well as the state’s first negotiated bond sale since 1997.
October 19 -
SAN FRANCISCO — A bond deal expected to approach $2 billion is heading for the November calendar, after a California Senate vote this week.
October 15 -
Washington motorists appear willing to ante up to make up for budget cuts to state parks.
October 15 - Hawaii
After months of negotiations driven by declining state tax receipts, Hawaii’s largest government employee union reached a tentative contract agreement with the administration of Gov. Linda Lingle, calling for 42 unpaid furlough days over the next two years.
October 15 -
Stanford University has promoted Odile Disch-Bhadkamkar to the new position of treasurer. Her previous post was senior director of finance and bondholder relations.
October 15 - California
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Sunday designed to make it easier for the San Francisco 49ers to build a new football stadium in Santa Clara.
October 15 - California
Through the first quarter of fiscal 2010, California general fund revenue was more than $1 billion below projections, according to state Controller John Chiang’s monthly cash report released Friday.
October 15 -
SAN FRANCISCO — Despite apparently alarming drops in many regional real estate markets around the country, most jurisdictions have built-in structural cushions that will offset the impact of lower assessed values on bond issuers, according to a report Fitch Ratings will release today.
October 14 -
SAN FRANCISCO — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger backed off on a blanket threat to veto more than 700 bills if he didn’t get a water infrastructure deal, taking action on all of them Sunday, his deadline to act on bills the Legislature approved in its 2009 regular session.
October 13 -
SAN FRANCISCO — The tangled tale involving bonds issued for the failed Copia “wine shrine” in Napa, Calif., could reach a major turning point later this month when a bankruptcy judge will consider confirming a plan to conclude the museum’s almost 11-month-old bankruptcy case.
October 8 - California
California’s real estate trade association projects that 2010 will mark a “new normal” for the state’s residential real estate market.
October 8 - Alaska
Voters in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Tuesday rejected a school bond measure as well as a plan to trade some property tax levies for a new sales tax.
October 8 -
SAN FRANCISCO — If there was any doubt before, it was removed Thursday by the California Supreme Court: the state’s current budget is out of balance.
October 2 -
LOS ANGELES — Public-private partnerships may or may not be the way to finance transportation infrastructure in California, according to the mixed opinions of panelists at a symposium here this week, but it’s pretty clear that the state’s general fund can’t do much more.
October 1 -
A recently priced bond issue for a Honolulu senior-living facility is the first startup continuing care retirement community financing in more than 18 months, underwriter Ziegler Capital Markets said in a news release.
October 1
