Far West

CHARLESTON — Congress should give the Securities and Exchange Commission the authority to set baseline standards for issuers’ primary and secondary market municipal securities disclosures, the SEC commissioner charged with conducting a review of the muni market said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — Municipal and other market participants yesterday urged federal regulators to consider allowing state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, utilities and other end-users in derivatives transactions to provide one set of required disclosures that could be updated when material changes occur.

WASHINGTON — Though several deficit-cutting commissions are recommending Congress and the Obama administration overhaul the tax code and cut tax expenditures, such as the tax-exempt interest from municipal bonds, the head of the Tax Foundation said Tuesday that the budgetary cost of munis is relatively small.

SAN FRANCISCO — California is not Greece, according to Standard & Poor’s. The rating agency said in a report released Tuesday that comparisons between the most populated U.S. state and Greece’s financial quagmire are overblown.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $20 million of Series A bonds issued in December 2005 by the City School District of Middletown in Orange County, N.Y. The audit was disclosed Monday in an event notice the issuer filed with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s online EMMA system.

A majority of the nation’s mayors want the new highway bill coming from Congress to emphasize streets and bridges over highways and to provide financing tools such as Build America Bonds, TIFIA loans or a national infrastructure bank.

SAN FRANCISCO — A push for a constitutional amendment to reduce Washington’s debt limit has run into a political roadblock.

WASHINGTON — States are ramping up pressure on online-only retailers to pay billions of dollars in state sales taxes, hoping the funds will help bring their tax collections into the 21st century.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets’ Association is urging the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to withdraw its draft broker’s brokers rule and leave the existing regulatory and enforcement scheme intact.

SAN FRANCISCO — Treasurer Bill Lockyer said California has recouped $2.67 million in fees paid by municipal bond underwriters to industry lobbying groups from state bond proceeds.