Far West

WASHINGTON — Southwest Securities Inc. has agreed to pay $470,147 to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating an anti-pay-to-play rule by co-underwriting Massachusetts bond deals within two years after its former senior vice president made political contributions to state Treasurer Timothy Cahill.

The House today is expected to vote on a bill that would reauthorize federal aviation programs and allow airports to ramp up revenue they use to back bonds.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Vallejo, Calif., City Council approved a new contract with firefighters, cutting its costs and unfunded liabilities as the city moves closer to exiting bankruptcy.

WASHINGTON — Southwest Securities Inc. has agreed to pay $470,147 to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it co-underwrote Massachusetts bond deals within two years after its former senior vice president made political contributions to state Treasurer Timothy Cahill.

WASHINGTON — Money-market fund officials are warning that new terms some banks and issuers are beginning to include in variable-rate debt transaction documents can be difficult to monitor and limit bondholders’ rights.

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Department of Education said 12% of the state’s school districts may be unable to meet their financial obligations between now and fiscal 2012.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department Tuesday released interim guidance detailing how issuers, bondholders, and other market participants should “strip” the tax credits from tax-credit bonds and how that information should be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

The City of Industry Urban-Development Agency in California has agreed to pay $500,000 to the federal government to settle alleged tax-law violations and preserve the tax-exempt status of $68.1 million of tax allocation bonds it sold in 2003.

The Senate has approved a Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill that would establish a pilot program giving six airports the ability to set their own passenger facilities charges, which currently are capped at $4.50 and are used to back bonds.

WASHINGTON — Another extension of federal transportation programs beyond the end of this year is highly possible, a congressional aide and transportation industry sources said at a conference here yesterday.