Far West

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department Friday announced allocations to states of $1.4 billion of qualified zone academy bonds for calendar year 2010.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Bond attorneys raised concerns last week that a Securities and Exchange Commission proposal to expedite the filing of continuing disclosure event notices, coupled with the lack of a requirement to make materiality determinations for certain notices, could pose undue burdens on issuers.

At least one Build America Bond issuer has had a subsidy payment reduced because it owed money to the federal government, and this "offset" system is entirely automated, market participants warned here yesterday.

Issuer and investor groups are working together on a voluntary framework for improved disclosure of municipal swaps and financial information, a move they say reflects unprecedented cooperation between the two market groups, which historically have not been able to reach much consensus on the need for disclosure changes.

The Internal Revenue Service yesterday published two new information forms with accompanying instructions for issuers of Build America Bonds and recovery zone economic development bonds, one of which provides for direct deposit of payments from the federal government.

Leaders in the nation's second-largest city insisted this week they haven't slipped into the kind of political paralysis that has made it nearly impossible for California to balance its budget and that garnered it the lowest state credit rating in the nation.

The Washington Senate Tuesday approved a bill that sponsors say will allow the state to move forward with plans for a toll-financed replacement of the Highway 520 floating bridge over Lake Washington.

The Oregon House last week unanimously approved a bill that would allow state Treasurer Ben Westlund to use Build America Bonds.

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons Wednesday issued a news release responding to what he described as criticism of budget cut proposals he made earlier in the week, in advance of the Legislature's special session next week.

Standard & Poor's Tuesday announced that it had upgraded 19 school districts in California, plus one in Washington.