Far West

The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service have released final allocation and accounting rules that bond lawyers say will help in administering public-private partnerships for transportation and joint ventures involving hospitals.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker said he will not introduce a bill to impose a property tax on natural gas leases in major reserve areas after receiving written assurances from two industry giants that they will make available their share of Alaska’s North Slope gas to a future gas pipeline project.

Rating agencies are continuing to treat municipal issuers unfairly even though federal law required that practice to stop, former California Treasurer Bill Lockyer said.

Conventional wisdom that municipalities that file for bankruptcy “will never borrow in this town again” has not been found to be true, said panelists at The Bond Buyer’s California Public Finance Conference.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker Announced this week that he is allowing the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority to spend up to $3.6 million, which had already been appropriated, to continue early work on a proposed bond-financed road project.

The ports of Seattle and Tacoma have merged their marine cargo operations in an effort to better compete with other Pacific ports while keeping their bond portfolios independent.

Improved disclosure and transparency will help California’s leaders make the argument for improved infrastructure, State Treasurer John Chiang said.

The Marin Healthcare District of Marin County, Calif, plans to sell $170 million of investment-grade bonds next week to finance earthquake readiness measures and medical improvements at a 63 year-old hospital.

A proposed House bill to treat investment grade and actively traded municipal securities as high quality liquid assets received support from members of a House Financial Services Committee panel as well as banking experts during a hearing on Wednesday.

The San Diego City Council approved Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s plan to streamline the bidding process on infrastructure projects.