Far West

Far West issuers sold $48.3 billion of municipal bonds in the first half of 2015, a 70% increase from the first six months of 2014 that was driven by refundings.

A city's authority can have additional time to spend proceeds of its new clean renewable energy bonds after unanticipated events caused a "significant delay" in the proceeds being committed and spent, the Internal Revenue Service has ruled.

Standard & Poor’s removed from credit watch and affirmed its A-plus rating on the West Covina Public Finance Authority, Calif.'s lease-revenue bonds after the city enacted improved internal controls.

California lawmakers began consideration of several bond-related propositions aimed at raising infrastructure revenue.

The municipal bond tax exemption saved state and local government borrowers about $715 billion in debt service expenses from 2000 to 2014, according to a white paper issued by the International City/County Management Association and the Government Finance Officers Association.

Standard & Poor’s put triple-A rated Alaska on negative outlook and warned that it might no longer warrant the highest rating if the state’s lawmakers fail to fix its structural budget imbalance.

Alaska and California issuers are among those at risk of downgrades after U.S. oil prices tumbled this week, Fitch Ratings said Tuesday.

A survey Fitch Ratings conducted of 49 California water utilities found that customers can expect rate increases and that those increases bode well for California water districts' credit quality through 2017.

Moody's Investors Service boosted by four notches to A2 $97.4 million in tax allocation bond debt managed by the successor agency to Westminster, Calif.'s redevelopment agency.

Moody’s Investors Service affirmed California’s Aa3 rating ahead of a $1.9 billion general obligation bond sale slated for Aug. 26.