Far West

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia's $11.3 billion fiscal 2013 budget proposal is balanced and its plans to issue nearly $900 million of bonds will not exceed its mandatory 12% debt cap, according to chief financial officer Natwar Gandhi.

California last year slipped to second place from its long-standing throne as the largest issuer in the country. And for good reason: it's trying to get its fiscal house in order.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Monday asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve proposed rule changes that would allow individual investors to qualify as "sophisticated municipal market professionals," for whom broker-dealers would be exempt from having to meet certain requirements.

A Congressional Research Service analysis suggests there are impediments to broadening the tax base by eliminating or reducing tax expenditures - such as tax-exemption for municipal bond interest - because they are viewed as "serving an important purpose" and are "quite popular" with the public.

SAN FRANCISCO — Wenatchee, Wash., and a local public facilities district hope to sell bonds to resolve a $42 million default on notes used to fund a public arena.

LOS ANGELES — After six years laying groundwork, a project to construct a new $715 million Otay Mesa Port of Entry and a connecting highway at the Mexican border in San Diego appears to be moving forward.

Three bills are moving through the California Legislature that attempt to clean up the process of unwinding the state's redevelopment agencies.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is seeking comment from the public and federal government agencies on the guidance it issued for provisions in the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008, which provided additional volume cap for tax-exempt housing bonds.

State and local tax revenues in the fourth quarter of 2011 grew by 2.1% from a year earlier, marking the ninth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth, the Census Bureau said in a report issued Thursday.

Analysts are still weighing the impact a decision by the California Public Employees' Retirement System to lower its investment assumptions will have on local governments.