Far West

SAN FRANCISCO - Washington's treasurer will ask the Legislature to cough up $42 million to try to protect the state from the repercussions of a local municipal default.

LOS ANGELES - The California Housing Finance Agency has agreed to temporarily stop foreclosing on homeowners who are renting their homes out and are current on their mortgages.

While the loss of Internet retail sales taxes is not currently significant enough to hurt state and local government credit ratings, it could become a problem in the future, Standard & Poor's said in a report issued Monday.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for guidance on when a bank loan qualifies as a municipal security, officials said Monday.

The Internal Revenue Service closed its audit of $28.72 million of special assessment bonds issued by the Bartram Park Community Development District in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2005 without any changes to the tax-exempt status of the bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service is looking for two representatives of the tax-exempt bond community to serve on its 21-member Advisory Committee for the Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division, called ACT.

WASHINGTON - The House voted by an overwhelming 405-to-16 margin on Thursday to repeal a tax law provision that would require federal, state and local governments to withhold and remit 3% of certain payments made to private contractors beginning in 2013.

SAN FRANCISCO - California Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled a pension reform plan Thursday that would affect both current and new workers in state and local government in an effort to control rising costs.

WASHINGTON - Bond lawyers want Congress and the Treasury Department to allow muni issuers to current refund certain tax-advantaged bonds, even after they can no longer issue the bonds under existing tax law.

LOS ANGELES - Afraid of jeopardizing its tax-exempt bond status, the California Housing Finance Agency has been foreclosing on homeowners who are renting out homes financed by the agency - even if they are current on their mortgages, according to a report by the state Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes.