Far West

As California grapples with an estimated $16 billion budget gap, analysts warned lawmakers to shun one-time gimmicks to try fix the shortfall.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office plans to send a letter to several hundred bond issuers that have suffered covenant or payment defaults in recent years, alerting them that certain actions they take could inadvertently trigger a reissuance of the bonds.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus urged Congress, as part of tax reform, to put Indian tribal governments on par with states and localities for tax-exempt financing.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that he expects the deficit reduction and tax reform debates will end with results that resemble the recommendations made by the Bowles-Simpson report.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission had no basis to approve the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's interpretative notice to Rule G-17, which spells out underwriters' fair dealing obligations to state and local municipal bond issuers, the SEC's two Republican members charged in a six-page dissent of the decision.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered two firms to pay a total of $100,000 in fines for violations of municipal security and other rules, the self-regulator announced Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES — California is pressing ahead with PACE programs despite the hurdles created by federal housing administrators, according to speakers at The Bond Buyer's symposium on sustainable energy here Tuesday.

State transportation officials, engineers, construction firms and transportation advocacy groups are urging lawmakers working on a final highway bill to support the use of new tax-credit bonds to finance transportation projects.

The IRS’s new compliance practice research team will begin circulating a document internally for feedback that will identify red flags for issuers that are likely to occur over the life of a bond issue.

California Gov. Jerry Brown released a revised budget that will try to bandage a projected deficit that has grown by $6.5 billion to nearly $16 billion for the next fiscal year.