Far West

Many states will have to revisit their fiscal 2011 budgets and may have to rearrange their spending plans due to gaps between what they expected and what they actually receive from a six-month extension of extra federal Medicaid funding.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Issuers in the Far West sold $43.36 billion of municipal bonds in 672 transactions during the first six months of 2010, according to Thomson Reuters, down from $47.12 billion in 600 transactions in the first half of 2009.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. this week asked the judge handling the Vallejo bankruptcy case to order the resumption of state intercept payments that back one of the California city’s debt issues.

WASHINGTON — Two medical groups have asked the Internal Revenue Service to allow hospitals to be flexible when conducting the community health needs assessments required under the health care reform law.

WASHINGTON — Fitch Ratings this week released expanded global criteria that its analysts will use to evaluate debt secured by tolled facilities such as roads, bridges, and tunnels.

WASHINGTON — Dealers are urging regulators not to impose fees on them to help fund the Governmental Accounting Standards Board until after a congressional watchdog agency completes a study of the standards setter.

A direct feed of the reset information for auction-rate securities and variable-rate demand obligations that dealers submit to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will cost $10,000 annually if the Securities and Exchange Commission signs off on a proposal submitted by the board Tuesday.

The Internal Revenue Service has initiated an audit of $21.8 million of tax refunding bonds issued in 2005 by the Uvalde, Tex., Consolidated School District.

House members Tuesday sent to President Obama a $26.1 billion measure that would extend but gradually phase out higher federal Medicaid payments to states through June 30 and provide $10 billion to local school districts to prevent layoffs.

WASHINGTON — Since the beginning of the year, Wall Street firms, trade associations, and municipal bond issuers have significantly stepped up their lobbying efforts to get lawmakers to extend the Build America Bonds program before it expires at the end of December.