Far West

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration provided state and local housing finance agencies with a total of $23.5 billion of assistance under bond purchase and liquidity programs that have run their course, the Treasury Department announced yesterday.

The Obama administration is working with Congress on a multi-year transportation bill that it expects will cost between $400 billion to $500 billion, Transportation Department Secretary Ray LaHood said at a conference here yesterday.

WASHINGTON — In the biggest reorganization of its enforcement division in 30 years, the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday announced the new heads of five specialized enforcement units, including Elaine Greenberg, who will lead a unit expected to boost enforcement of municipal securities and public pension abuses.

SAN FRANCISCO — Citing California’s “severe” budget imbalance and the likely reappearance of cash-flow problems, Standard & Poor’s yesterday downgraded the state’s general obligation bond rating to A-minus from A. The agency continues to assign a negative outlook.

SAN FRANCISCO — Not only is California facing a huge budget deficit, but lawmakers and the governor have a very short time to fix it to keep things from getting farther out of balance, the state’s independent Legislative Analyst’s Office reported Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — Two environmental groups critical of coal-fired electric plants are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to encourage broker-dealers that underwrite municipal bonds for such projects to provide more disclosure about the regulatory and fiscal changes stemming from climate change.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest, may be forced to make deep budget cuts to balance its fiscal 2010-2011 general fund budget in the face of new state budget cuts and continued weakness in revenue collections, officials said Tuesday.

SAN FRANCISCO — The builders of what they say will be the biggest water desalination plant in the nation are now slated to ask for more than one-half billion dollars of private-activity bond allocation by the end of the month.

Seven groups representing state securities regulators, investors, and investment advisers are urging leaders of the Senate Banking Committee not to water down language in its draft financial regulatory reform legislation that would require every individual that provides investment advice to be held to a fiduciary duty under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters joined a push by House lawmakers yesterday to revamp the federal transportation funding system, which currently has “donor states” such as Texas paying more into the federal highway trust fund than they get back.