Far West

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ended a standoff with the City Council over electricity rate hikes, bringing to a close a political battle of wills that had hurt the city’s ratings and delayed a $720 million power revenue bond deal.

WASHINGTON — Infrastructure in the U.S., especially for water systems and surface transportation, is desperately in need of investment, the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young declared this week. Their report criticized governments from the local to federal levels for their sluggish movement toward transportation and infrastructure financing reform.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ron Wyden, who recently caused a stir in the municipal bond market by proposing a tax-reform bill that would eliminate tax-exempt bonds and replace them with tax-credit bonds, said yesterday he is open to discussing possible modifications to the legislation with critics.

A group of state insurance regulators is beginning to provide substitute credit ratings for municipal bonds held by insurance companies and is pitching the ratings to financial advisers and other market participants as a way to improve the marketability of issuers’ bonds to these companies.

Innovative financing tools for transportation projects — including an array of different types of bonds — should be expanded and grouped into a centralized department at the federal level, state and local officials told House panel members yesterday.

WASHINGTON — At least six state securities regulators are considering enforcement action against banks and broker-dealers that have failed to commit their “best efforts” to restore liquidity to institutional investors in auction-rate securities, according to David Massey, North Carolina’s deputy securities ­administrator.

WASHINGTON — Build America Bond transaction participants are debating whether they need to do more to track BAB prices to avoid running afoul of statutory premium restrictions and jeopardizing the issuer’s subsidy payments or to respond to an Internal Revenue Service compliance check.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Washington Legislature rebalanced the state’s 2009-11 biennial budget Monday night, closing a $2.8 billion gap with the help of almost $750 million in new taxes.

WASHINGTON — Amtrak wants to become a major player in creating a national high-speed rail network, as states continue to jockey for funding from the federal government and potentially offer up their own bonds to help cover construction costs.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles was making progress reducing its budget deficit before a political standoff derailed a planned electricity rate increase, a new report from the office of the city administrative officer says.