Far West

LOS ANGELES - A bill moving through the California Legislature would lower the state's short-term borrowing costs with the help of a $1.7 billion cushion from its two public university systems.

LOS ANGELES - Moody's Investors Service Tuesday downgraded Los Angeles' general obligation bonds one notch to Aa3 from Aa2, affecting $3.3 billion of outstanding debt.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board may boost its oversight of the derivatives market, including guaranteed investments contracts that are at the center of a bid-rigging investigation by the Justice Department and other federal and state agencies, an MSRB official said Tuesday.

Rep. John F. Tierney has introduced tax reform legislation that would require all tax-exempt municipal bonds to be issued as direct-pay subsidy bonds at a 28% subsidy rate after this year. The bill is part of an effort to eliminate certain tax expenditures and sway the deficit-reduction negotiations driving the legislative agenda.

WASHINGTON - In a ruling that could spell trouble for Wedbush Securities Inc., a municipal securities trader snagged a $3.5 million arbitration award from the firm, based on its failure to pay him incentive-based compensation.

Revenues in at least 28 states will exceed their fiscal 2011 budget forecasts as personal income and corporate taxes rebound, the Center on Budget Policies and Priorities said Monday.

A bill recently introduced in the House would create new tax-credit bonds to help state and local governments finance charging stations for plug-in electric cars.

The Internal Revenue Service closed a routine audit without changing the tax-exempt status of $147.5 million of auction-rate securities sold by the New Mexico Hospital Equipment Loan Council in May 2004.

SAN FRANCISCO — Washington Treasurer James McIntire announced a "Buy Washington Bonds" program Friday that will result in the state's first negotiated tax-exempt bond sale in decades.

WASHINGTON — The Governmental Accounting Standards Board unveiled a pension accounting and reporting proposal Friday that would fundamentally alter how cash-strapped states and localities report pension liabilities and pose challenges for them.