Far West

In recent years the SEC has sanctioned municipal bond issuers for not fully disclosing pension information or for understating pension liabilities in bond documents because officials feared political fallout. Now the opposite may be occurring.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing two special assessment bond issues totaling $64.46 million that were sold in May 2006 by the Wentworth Estates Community Development District in Florida and went into default.

The Bond Dealers of America has urged federal agencies to issue guidance clarifying how obligations of municipal market participants will change if federal regulators fail to finish writing the controversial Volcker Rule by the July 21 deadline — an outcome officials have warned is possible.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles officials hope to capture a combined $36 million in savings through two refundings they have planned in April.

As the Government Accounting Standards Board prepares to hold its first public hearing on a proposal for state and local governments to provide five-year projections with their financial statements, groups are complaining the plan is costly, burdensome and outside GASB's mission.

WASHINGTON — A trend towards more detailed regulation of muni markets by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board could have negative, long-term consequences on market participants, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association warned the board in a recent letter.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Jose officials said Monday's downgrade of its lease revenue bonds by Moody's Investors Service will cost the city more than $350,000 a year.

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.