Far West

SAN ANTONIO — State and local governments should boost their continuing disclosure voluntarily or federal regulators may mandate improvements for them, a state finance director warned Saturday.

SAN ANTONIO — State and local governments dodged a bullet again on the 3% withholding requirement when earlier this month the Internal Revenue Service postponed its start date until 2013.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to file revised amendments to its Rule G-20 with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June that will clarify proposed restrictions on gifts and gratuities for muni advisers would be virtually the same as those for broker-dealers, MSRB officials said Monday.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Los Angeles County treasurer has fired a warning shot at bond attorneys, underwriters and advisers in a bid stop school bond practices that he says hurt taxpayers.

SAN FRANCISCO — Portland school district voters last week narrowly rejected a $548 million school construction bond measure — the biggest-ever attempted by a local government in Oregon.

The Internal Revenue Service has revised its Form 8038 for private-activity bonds, asking issuers now to provide more specific information about their guaranteed investment contracts and hedges.

WASHINGTON — A muni market research group is urging Congress to require the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to tag issuers that fail to comply with their secondary-market disclosure agreements and then force dealers to take the flagged muni securities into account when trading.

SAN FRANCISCO — California Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to cut bond sales as part of his new budget will stretch an already tight market for the state’s debt.

WASHINGTON — President Obama has nominated Luis Aguilar to a second term at the Securities and Exchange Commission and WilmerHale partner Daniel Gallagher to replace Kathleen Casey, whose term as SEC commissioner expires in July.

WASHINGTON — Loudoun County, Va., is looking at the possible impact of withdrawing its funding for the Washington, D.C., Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport.