Far West

Washington saved 14% during a $978 million refunding bond sale on Tuesday — the largest refunding in the state’s history. The state treasurer’s office said it achieved more than $154 million in present-value savings from the debt refunding.

For the most part, economic indicators show that Nevada, one of the state’s hit hardest by the wave of home foreclosures in recent years, has been pulling itself out of the muck.

RED, the developer of the Outlets at Legends in Sparks, Nev., has defaulted on $141 million in private loans used to construct most of the 148-acre retail development, according to published reports.

In anticipation of a $5.3 billion rail project coming in under budget, Honolulu transit authority officials are contemplating adding additional features to the system like a fare gate system, according to published reports.

A bill that would allow municipalities in California to keep affordable housing funds collected by their redevelopment agencies, which were shut down Wednesday, cleared the state Senate.

For a second year, Georgia is poised to eclipse Florida in authorizing new-money bonds in their state budgets.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., has introduced legislation that would repeal the individual alternative minimum tax, potentially lowering the borrowing cost and improving the marketability of private-activity bonds.

California cities and redevelopment agencies have spent the past month lamenting the uncertainty wrought by the dissolution of the state's 400-plus redevelopment agencies, but based on trading, municipal bond investors don't appear to share those concerns.

President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget will propose a 28% cap on the value of tax preferences, including tax-exempt interest for municipal bonds, according to knowledgeable sources.

Market participants slammed a proposal to assess a fee on broker-dealers to help finance the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, differing about whether regulations on dealers should be permitted to pass the fee along to other market participants, including issuers.