Far West

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $445 million of industrial development revenue refunding bonds issued by Campbell County, Wyo., in 2007 in connection with a waste-coal power plant now set to be completed in 2013, five years later than originally proposed.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is seeking public comment on draft interpretive guidance it released yesterday that outlines steps dealers must take to ensure the prices they charge customers to buy and sell municipal securities are fair and reasonable.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proposed a $4.34 billion fiscal 2010-11 general fund budget that would cut spending by 2.2% to rein in the deficit and rebuild reserves amid continued declines in most major tax revenue.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into an $83.3 million bond deal that Miami-Dade County sold last year on behalf of the county’s financially ailing Public Health Trust.

WASHINGTON — Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Blanche Lincoln and other Democrats contend it’s necessary to impose a fiduciary duty on dealers that act as swap ­counterparties to state and local governments because some of them have misled municipalities into entering swaps they didn’t understand.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Anna Eshoo will soon introduce legislation requiring the Treasury Department to use some of the profits it obtains from the sale of troubled assets under the TARP program to provide relief to local governments that lost money from the September 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse.

WASHINGTON — States are likely to increase debt issuance to plug operating budget shortfalls as federal aid declines and their tax revenues lag the economic recovery, Standard & Poor’s said yesterday in a report.

Louisiana disclosed this week that it has been providing information to the Internal Revenue Service for the last 13 months as part of an ongoing audit of $650 million of general obligation refunding bonds it sold in 2005.

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats yesterday urged senators to come to an agreement on broad financial regulatory reform this week, while the most moderate Republican on the issue argued that negotiations should go on for at least another three or four weeks before a bill is considered on the Senate floor.

WASHINGTON — Real estate investment trusts could be the next frontier for infrastructure financing, according to a report released yesterday by Deloitte LLP, a member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a Swiss association. But legislation is needed to clarify questions of eligibility if public-sector entities want to secure REIT investments, the report said.