Far West

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.

The Orange County Water District's approval of a non-binding term sheet to purchase water from Poseidon Water's proposed Huntington Beach, Calif. desalination plant is a credit positive , Moody's Investors Service said.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found fault with Maryland's personal income tax collection scheme will cost localities in the state millions of dollars but may not impact their credit ratings, analysts and government officials said.

Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee have given their tax-reform working groups more time to do their work.

Municipal issuers and dealers hope that the Federal Reserve's proposal to include uninsured investment-grade general obligation bonds as high-quality liquid assets under the Fed's liquidity coverage ratio requirement rule spurs other banking regulators to do the same.

The Los Angeles City Council on Thursday passed an $8.6 billion balanced city budget for fiscal year 2015-2016.

Standard & Poor’s placed A-plus rated California on CreditWatch Positive