Far West

President Obama threatens to veto a House committee's fiscal 2016 transportation appropriations bill over low funding levels.

Los Angeles city officials introduced a motion to place the burden of repairing and maintaining 11,000 miles of city sidewalks on homeowners and business owners.

Municipal issuers spent $2,000 to $18,000 to do continuing disclosure reviews under the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative and the vast majority of them felt they were forced to do them, the Government Finance Officers Association said during a spirited panel discussion here Tuesday.

Dealer groups and banks remain highly concerned that the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed core municipal advisor rule could limit the services they offer, while non-dealer advisors told the Securities and Exchange Commission that the proposal needs more clarification in several ways.

The Government Finance Officers Association is trying to galvanize public officials to pressure federal banking regulators into more permissive rules classifying municipal securities as high-quality liquid assets under the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) rule adopted last year.

A long-term transportation bill offered by the Senate Finance Committee would be likely to include some new type of private-activity bond, a Government Finance Officers Association official said here.

Municipal issuers need to be prepared to fight against Securities and Exchange Commission efforts to directly regulate them, members of the Government Finance Officers Associations' Committee on Governmental Debt Management said Saturday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission should not approve the outline for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's Municipal Advisory Representative Qualification Examination because it takes an inappropriate "one-size-fits-all" approach, the Investment Company Institute told the commission in a comment letter.

A coalition in California is pushing to amend property tax limits created by 1978’s Proposition 13, which remains central to understanding both state and local California credit.

The recent drought emergency declaration in Washington State provides a short-term credit positive development for the agricultural communities in the central and eastern portions of the state, Moody's Investors Service said.