Far West

The San Bernardino City Council appointed two interim city managers to serve consecutively as the city works to extract itself from bankruptcy.

"Our biggest issue is the issue price rules," Michael Decker, a managing director and co-head of municipal securities for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, said when asked about the tax arena.

California Treasurer John Chiang said he plans to meet investors around the country as he prepares to ratchet up the state's green bond issuance.

The biggest tax regulatory issue for municipal market participants in 2016 are the issue price rules and what changes the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service will make as they finalize them, dealer and issuer group representatives said in interviews about the coming year.

Washington State Treasurer James McIntire surprised insiders with his decision to not seek re-election after two terms in a position that includes oversight of state bond sales.

The pipeline for municipal market enforcement cases is very full for 2016, said LeeAnn Gaunt, director of the SEC enforcement division's municipal securities and public pensions unit. "We're really operating on all cylinders."

Municipal market participants will once again see an active year for enforcement in 2016 as the Securities and Exchange Commission's self-reporting initiative largely wraps up and the enforcement division mixes a continued focus on pricing and market structure actions with potential new areas for enforcement like municipal advisors and bank loans.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's core conduct rule for municipal advisors, despite its controversial ban on principal transactions.

The gasoline tax and other dedicated taxes and fees provide about 70% of the funding in the new five-year, $305 billion FAST Act, but that level of support will drop to about 50% when the measure expires in October 2020, said Peter Nonis, senior manager for federal relations at the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The search for a robust revenue source to supplement or even replace the federal gasoline tax will pick up speed in 2016.