Far West

WASHINGTON — House Transportation Committee chairman Rep. John Mica said Wednesday that he will introduce a multiyear surface transportation bill later this year that includes Build America Bonds.

WASHINGTON — Claims that states and localities are facing massive budget gaps, unfunded pension liabilities, and health care costs that will lead to bond defaults and bankruptcy filings are greatly exaggerated, and mask the need for states to overhaul out-of-date tax systems and make other structural changes, a new report warns.

SAN FRANCISCO — The city of Vallejo, Calif., filed a plan to exit bankruptcy that proposes to pay unsecured creditors 5 to 20 cents on the dollar.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board held an informal roundtable with market groups late last week and is planning another one in September as well as two teleconferences, leading some to compare the discussions to the former Muni Council.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. $500,000 for failing to establish and maintain written supervisory procedures to ensure that its representatives considered customers’ state income-tax benefits in their suitability analyses of 529 college saving plans.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined TD Ameritrade Inc., Scottrade Inc., and Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC $35,000 each for failing to disclose the underlying ratings of insured bonds, which it said constituted material information that customers purchasing the bonds needed to know.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles is kicking around a plan to lease city-owned garages to a public-private partnership to raise cash that could help close a budget gap and defease outstanding bonds.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Some California redevelopment agencies are already working to undermine a plan by Gov. Jerry Brown that would phase them out and use their surplus revenue to help balance the state budget.

State and local government voluntary contributions to the Governmental ­Accounting Standards Board were $1.2 million in 2009, far less than the $6.6 ­million GASB needed to meet expenses, the Government Accountability Office told Congress in a report released Tuesday.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Faced with a $30 million legal judgment after losing two rounds in court, the financial fate of the small ski resort town of Mammoth Lakes is in the hands of the California Supreme Court.