Far West

Los Angeles County's emergence from the economic downturn with key credit factors intact was cited by Moody's Investors Service in affirming the county's Aa2 issuer rating and other ratings notched below that, including an A1 rating on a forthcoming $168 million lease revenue bond sale.

Standard & Poor's affirmed Wyoming's AAA issuer credit rating saying that ample reserves outweigh concerns over the state's dependence on revenues from volatile sources such as commodities and oil and natural gas deposits.

The Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority in Washington received a negative outlook from Standard & Poor's on its outstanding "parity" lien obligations, but the authority, known as Sound Transit, retained its AAA rating.

States on the whole will see a slight increase in their new capacity to issue private-activity bonds in 2015.

Hawaii's draft $25.7 billion draft budget for the biennium contains plans to reduce general obligation bond obligation issuance by half compared to amounts pushed out over the past three years.

Congress is facing a big challenge in 2015 in reaching agreement on how to pay for transportation infrastructure spending.

Short-term extensions of federal transportation spending are likely to continue through 2015 as lawmakers struggle with a gasoline tax that can't pay the bills.

Credit rating agencies have made strides in implementing mandatory reforms, the SEC said in recent reports that found the raters also need to improve in several areas, including the way they handle conflicts of interest.

Washington's Performance Management Program has saved the state millions of dollars, according to a report from Gov. Jay Inslee's office.

2015 will bring a new Congress, with Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate and two new chairmen of the tax-writing committees.