Far West

WASHINGTON — States slowed their borrowing dramatically, with a growth of only 2.5% in 2011, despite low interest rates, according to a new Moody’s Investors Service report.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power heads to market Wednesday to refund $276.8 million of water bonds.

WASHINGTON — Donald Borut announced Tuesday that he will retire as executive director of the National League of Cities at the end of 2012, after 22 years.

WASHINGTON — Two top experts and staff officials at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials plan to retire on Feb. 1 next year.

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is urging lawmakers to include in a final highway bill temporary relief from the alternative minimum tax for private-activity bonds and provisions that keep TIFIA loans from being subordinated to other debt in municipal bankruptcies.

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles City Council passed a $7.2 billion budget Monday that largely preserved austerity measures proposed in the mayor’s budget.

SAN FRANCISCO — Stockton, Calif., officials said Monday creditors have agreed to extend talks on how to keep the city out of Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Natwar Gandhi has a unique job in a city unlike any other, but the District of Columbia's CFO strives to use the advantages of his one-of-a-kind office to offset the many challenges he readily admitted his city faces.

A tax-exempt advisory group to the Internal Revenue Service plans to release a report on June 6 about recent changes the agency has made to forms that bond issuers and nonprofits must file with it.

The Internal Revenue Service has notified the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago that it has closed an audit without changing the tax-exempt status on $346.6 million of general obligation refunding bonds and $50.79 million of GO refunding bonds limited-tax series issued in May 2006.