Shelly Sigo

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Florida Legislature Friday ended its annual session amid concern over the growing impact of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Georgia General Assembly ended its annual session last Thursday after passing a $38.5 billion budget for fiscal 2011 representing a $100 million increase over the current budget.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear is warning that the Legislature’s failure to adopt a budget could lead to a shutdown of government for the first time in the state’s history.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Miami’s former budget director, Michael Boudreaux, on Monday filed a whistleblower lawsuit claiming he was fired for “telling the truth and reporting about malfeasance” by former and current city hall officials.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Two Florida school districts today are closing on the state’s first issuer-subsidy qualified school construction bond deals, which are also the first in the nation to sell as certificates of participation.

Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson Tuesday sent a letter to top lawmakers about recent upgrades of the state’s bond rating due to recalibrations by Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed met with the Pension Review Panel on Tuesday to receive an overview of the city’s pension plans for employees and to advance reform in an open, transparent manner, city officials said.

The Alabama Legislature wrapped up its 2010 session last Thursday, the same day Gov. Bob Riley signed into law one of the two bills that make up the 2011 state budget.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida lawmakers shortly before midnight Monday reached a compromise on a $70 billion budget for 2011, an increase of $3.5 billion over the current year.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday filed a motion in Alabama federal court announcing that it had reached proposed settlements in the civil securities fraud case against Montgomery bond dealer William Blount and his firm, Blount Parrish & Co., and local lobbyist Al LaPierre.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The nonprofit Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts Inc. in Palm Beach County, Fla., has paid $320,000 to the Internal Revenue Service to settle a violation of the Internal Revenue Code’s 5% limit on private use in a bond-financed facility.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Birmingham, Ala., plans to use recovery zone economic development bonds in a “creative” way, according to city officials.

BRADENTON, Fla. — When Moody’s Investors Service ­released its first round of rating recalibrations for states Monday, Florida failed in its “gilt-edged” quest to win triple-A scores from all three major rating agencies.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into an $83.3 million bond deal that Miami-Dade County sold last year on behalf of the county’s financially ailing Public Health Trust.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour last week revised his executive budget for fiscal 2011 and cut most agency budgets between 12% and 17% from current levels.

Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March was 12.3%, up from February’s rate of 12.2%, and the highest on record since 1970.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley Tuesday signed a bill placing strict requirements on Jefferson County’s issuance of debt and use of swaps. He said the law would “usher in a new era of transparency and accountability for Jefferson County.”

The Jefferson County Commission Tuesday voted to submit a petition to the U.S. attorney general’s office in Alabama seeking the “criminal forfeiture” of $1.61 million to the county in connection with the federal corruption case of former county commissioner Larry Langford, lobbyist Al LaPierre and Montgomery bond dealer Bill Blount.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Atlanta City Council on Monday formally adopted a five-year budget stabilization planning process to eliminate deficits in certain funds, examine options to reduce unfunded pension benefits, and fix aging infrastructure with planned long-term bond issues.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Kentucky ended its annual legislative session Thursday night without passing a budget for the biennium, which begins July 1. The state is facing a $1.5 billion shortfall over the next two years.