Far West

More than two-thirds of states overestimated their revenue projections in fiscal 2009, forcing lawmakers to reopen budgets for additional rounds of spending cuts, according to a report released Tuesday.

The Internal Revenue Service has notified the Montana Facility Finance Authority that it has closed its audit of $14.15 million of variable-rate demand revenue bonds issued in 2002 without any change to the bonds’ tax-exempt status.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Two Florida senators, a Republican and a Democrat, filed a 281-page petition Tuesday with the state Supreme Court seeking an emergency ruling to block Gov. Rick Scott from rejecting $2.4 billion of federal funds for high-speed rail.

WASHINGTON — States officials are eyeing $2.4 billion of federal high-speed rail money that was allocated for Florida, but is now up for grabs after Gov. Rick Scott effectively ended the state’s project by rejecting the funding earlier this month.

Vallejo has been mired in a messy, prolonged and expensive bankruptcy proceeding since May 2008. But if the California city is “the poster boy of a new era,” as some have suggested, that doesn’t look too bad for bondholders.

WASHINGTON — House Financial Services Committee chairman Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., is warning the Securities and Exchange Commission that he does not support its proposed rules for a municipal adviser registration system because they are too broad and do not reflect congressional intent.

Dealer and bank groups warned they face a regulatory quagmire with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s draft muni adviser pay-to-play restrictions because the board and Securities and Exchange Commission define terms associated with muni advisers differently and have varying sets of rules for muni and investment advisers.

California's independent Little Hoover Commission urged the state's leaders to take government employee pension-reform efforts a big step beyond where they have gone so far, by altering benefit levels for current employees.

With pundits predicting a "wave of bankruptcies" in the municipal market this year, experts say one thing should be kept in mind: the majority of distressed issuers undergoing the Chapter 9 process don't end up stiffing bondholders.

The Internal Revenue Service announced Friday that issuers that purchased and still hold their auction-rate securities can enter into voluntary closing agreements under which the securities will continue to exist if the issuers pay a fee and meet certain conditions.