Far West

WASHINGTON — Three key Republicans in the House of Representatives introduced a bill Thursday that would impose punitive action on any state or locality with a public pension fund that fails to file annual reports to the U.S. Treasury Department that adhere to a uniform set of accounting standards.

SAN FRANCISCO — Outgoing Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has pitched an austerity roadmap to help rescue the state from a $3.5 billion shortfall for the upcoming two-year budget.

WASHINGTON — Raymond Scheppach, longtime executive director of the National Governors Association, announced Thursday that he will leave the group early next year to become a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and senior fellow for economic policy at its Miller Center of Public Affairs.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $147.5 million of auction-rate securities issued by the New Mexico Hospital Equipment Loan Council on behalf of the nonprofit Presbyterian Healthcare Service in 2004 and refunded in 2008.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Moody’s Investors Service changed its outlook on Nevada’s Aa1 bond rating to negative from stable this week as the state prepared for a $233 million general obligation bond sale.

WASHINGTON — State revenue growth will not bounce back to pre-recession levels until 2013 or 2014, according to new data released Wednesday by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

WASHINGTON ­— The central issue for Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board members gathered for a special meeting Thursday and Friday at their Alexandria, Va., headquarters is how the self-regulator will oversee municipal advisers.

VALLEJO — The Vallejo City Council unanimously approved a financial blueprint Tuesday night to exit California’s largest municipal bankruptcy in more than a decade.

WASHINGTON — Municipal market participants warned Wednesday that they would fight any attempts by Congress or the administration to do away with tax-exempt interest for all new municipal bonds.

WASHINGTON — State tax revenues continued rebounding, rising 3.9% from July through September in the third straight quarter of growth, the Rockefeller Institute of Government reported Tuesday.