Shelly Sigo

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.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday chopped the underlying rating on Orlando, Fla.’s contract tourist development tax bonds to junk, to levels below where other rating agencies recently have cut the credit.

BRADENTON, Fla. — State officials this week gave the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund Finance Corp. the go-ahead to sell up to $710 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds for storm-related losses that occurred in 2005.

Gov. Sonny Perdue Tuesday announced that he appointed a special attorney general, who will work for free, to direct Georgia’s participation in challenging the federal health care legislation recently passed by Congress.

Florida lawmakers last week cleared a measure that places a statewide referendum on the November ballot asking voters to make changes in the restrictive class-size amendment that has cost the state and local school districts billions to implement through construction of new schools and operational costs.

Alabama state senators Tuesday passed a bill that originated in the House placing strict requirements on Jefferson County’s issuance of debt and use of swaps. The measure is now on its way to Gov. Bob Riley.