Far West

Overall tax-exempt and taxable municipal bond issuance will increase to more than $502 billion next year from $435 billion this year if the Build America Bond program expires on Dec. 31, according to an annual survey conducted by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined New York-based Citigroup Global Markets Inc. $400,000 for violations of securities rules involving municipal and corporate bonds.

Senate Democrats are pushing for an omnibus appropriations measure to keep the federal government and bond-related programs funded through Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2011, instead of moving forward with a continuing resolution that was approved by the House last week.

San Francisco officials are pushing ahead with a controversial plan to charge a toll to motorists entering and the exiting the city's downtown during peak hours.

A state appellate court has at least temporarily halted California's sale of 11 state-owned buildings to private investors. The deal was slated to close Wednesday, but will now be delayed until at least Dec. 29 after the appeals court granted a temporary stay.

The Internal Revenue Service appears to be escalating its audit of $15 million of school improvement bonds that were issued by Cave Creek Unified School District No. 93 of Maricopa County, Ariz., in 2006 to finance a renovation project.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board's proposed changes in public pension accounting and reporting standards, if adopted, will not have immediate credit implications, but probably would make the reporting of year-to-year unfunded pension liabilities more volatile, Standard & Poor's will say in a report Wednesday.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission will likely sell $523 million of mostly Build America Bonds Wednesday after delaying the deal a week due to a slumping market.

WASHINGTON — Researchers for the Center on Law and Public Finance are refuting the notion that partisanship has dominated the issuance of Build America Bonds.

WASHINGTON — Since the Securities and Exchange ­Commission and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rolled out separate registration systems for municipal advisers this fall, there has been ­widespread confusion over the requirement that advisers register with both regulators.