Far West

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.

Tax reform, particularly corporate tax reform, is likely to be on the agenda in 2015, congressional observers said.

Market participants discuss the outlook for tax regulation in 2015.

The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service next year will be working on further guidance on issue price, regulations finalizing other proposed arbitrage rules, and additional rulemaking projects.