Far West

WASHINGTON — Some municipal issuers and their advocates yesterday came out swinging against the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SAN FRANCISCO — California, Oregon, and Nevada have taken a harsh battering in the Great Recession, but lawmakers in the three Far West states have reacted very differently.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. — A bankruptcy judge indicated this week that he is likely to approve a liquidation plan for the assets of Copia, the failed Napa, Calif. nonprofit wine museum.

WASHINGTON — Financial advisers in the municipal market would have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission under an amendment added to the Investor Protection Act of 2009 yesterday by House Financial Services Committee members.

Congress should repeal the Tower Amendment and other securities law exemptions for municipal issuers so that the Securities and Exchange Commission can require them to comply with certain disclosure requirements as well as with generally accepted governmental accounting standards, SEC commissioner Elisse Walter said Wednesday night.

The federal government is expected to forego more than $26 billion in annual revenue each year from fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2012 because of what tax-exempt bond financing of infrastructure projects costs federal coffers, the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation said in a report this week.

WASHINGTON — Democratic and Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee yesterday espoused completely different views about the effect of an amendment added to the credit rating agency bill that focuses on ratings of municipal securities.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will likely seek ­legislation “sometime next year” to expand its authority over the municipal market, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro told reporters yesterday after speaking at the Securities Industry and ­Financial Markets Association’s annual conference in New York.

WASHINGTON — What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, the municipal market was being tossed about in the throes of an historic financial maelstrom that ultimately swallowed up the likes of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns & Co., and muni bond insurers’ triple-A ratings.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department yesterday announced that it had allocated $2.2 billion in clean renewable energy bond authority to finance 805 projects by public power providers, cooperative electric companies, and governmental entities.