Far West

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last week proposed borrowing to speed construction on $20 billion of mass transit projects approved by Los Angeles County voters last year.

SAN FRANCISCO — It was a strange day yesterday in the world of California finance, as the state treasurer’s office announced a sudden Build America Bonds sale while the state’s finance director said he planned to resign.

WASHINGTON — A large local school district that cannot issue the qualified school construction bonds the Internal Revenue Service allocated to it will lose the allocation unless it transfers it to the state, which can then carry it forward indefinitely, an IRS attorney said last week.

The federal grand jury's indictment against Beverly Hills-based CDR Financial Products Inc., its founder David Rubin, and current and former officials at the firm for allegedly rigging bids for investment and derivatives contracts in return for kickbacks could be just the tip of the iceberg, market participants said yesterday.

States will struggle with finances in fiscal 2011 just as much as they have this fiscal year and last fiscal year, panelists said at a meeting here Friday sponsored by Tax Analysts.

A major component of the compliance questionnaire the Internal Revenue Service plans to send to issuers of Build America Bonds will examine how issuers are complying with the rule that all BAB project proceeds go towards capital expenditures, an IRS official said here Friday.

After digesting a revised $7.67 billion in new volume last week, the municipal market will face an estimated $9.59 billion this week, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer, as the California market again takes center stage — this time with a $1.5 billion sale of general obligation bonds catering to retail investors.

WASHINGTON — Congress last night was poised to approve a second stopgap measure to fund the federal government, including transportation and bond-related programs, for another seven weeks.

PHOENIX — The issue of how much information should be disclosed for certain variable-rate demand obligations has put the National Association of Bond Layers at loggerheads with the Securities and Exchange Commission staff for years. The ongoing dispute boiled over once again during NABL’s Bond Attorneys Workshop here this week.

PHOENIX — Any state or local government that issues Build America Bonds in the next fiscal year can expect to receive a compliance query from the Internal Revenue Service, according to Clifford Gannett, director of its tax-exempt bond office.