Far West

The Reno, Nev., City Council will discuss at its Dec. 12 meeting a tentative plan to provide a $30 million subsidy spread over 30 years to help the owners of the Reno Aces, its local minor league baseball team, refinance their stadium development debt.

The California Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Costa Mesa, Calif. officials in a union lawsuit challenging the city's plan to outsource city jobs.

Voters approved a measure creating an assessment district in downtown Los Angeles to build a streetcar line at a cost of $125 million.

Two California lawmakers have proposed constitutional amendments to lower voter thresholds for local tax and bond measures.

California's finances are improving in the wake of two revenue-generating ballot propositions passed last month, and more fiscal reforms would be "viewed positively," according to Fitch Ratings.

For the first time in the group's history, the National Conference of State Legislators descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday and spent the day lobbying Congress on one single issue: an online sales tax bill.

Susan Gaffney, federal liaison director for the Government Finance Officers Association for the past 12 years, plans to leave her post at the end of next week and move to California to help with family matters.

If CalPERS prevails in having courts define San Bernardino's obligations to the pension fund as immutable in the city's bankruptcy, ramifications could include sweeping bond downgrades, a report said.

San Bernardino filed documents Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside, Calif. defending its eligibility to receive bankruptcy protection from creditors.

A diverse group of associations with ties to the municipal bond market expect to publish a paper early next year that will give state and local governments guidance on how and when to disclose loans they receive direct from banks.