California

California Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s wife, Nadia Lockyer, resigned last week as an Alameda County supervisor amid a scandal.

California revenues are on track to be more than $2 billion less than the April estimates in Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget, the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office said in a report Wednesday.

The effort to build a commuter rail line through the two counties north of California's Golden Gate has been a story of ups and downs mimicking the rolling countryside of Marin and Sonoma counties.

California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office Tuesday issued a report recommending that lawmakers reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s funding requests for the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

Standard & Poor’s Monday raised the senior-lien rating on Los Angeles wastewater revenue bonds to AA-plus from AA, and the subordinate-lien rating to AA from AA-minus, in advance of a $360 million refunding.

Standard & Poor’s Monday lowered its long-term rating and underlying rating to BBB from A-minus on tax allocation bonds issued by the Banning Community Redevelopment Agency in California. The outlook was revised to stable from negative.

SAN FRANCISCO — Standard & Poor's said Wednesday it has downgraded San Jose's general obligation rating to AA-plus from AAA due to the city's weak finances.

The Los Angeles mayor's race slated for 2013 is still anybody's game as two-thirds of Angelenos do not have a preference, according to a poll released by the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Stanford University.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded to A2 from A1 the rating on the Three Valleys Municipal Water District's 2003 refunding revenue certificates of participation. The downgrade affects $11.38 billion of debt.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System is looking for an experienced chief financial officer who will oversee the financial and risk management operations of the $235 billion pension fund.

California Republican lawmakers have called for a vote by a pension committee on Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to curb retirement benefits.

The California attorney general's office filed a lawsuit against Orange County last Thursday to prevent the county from diverting money from education in order to balance its budget.

Anschutz Entertainment Group, the developer behind the proposed $1.5 billion Farmers Field project to build a National Football League stadium in downtown Los Angeles and modernize the city' convention center, released a 10,000-page draft environmental impact report Thursday.

LOS ANGELES — Fitch Ratings analysts said Tuesday that while a decision by the California Public Employees' Retirement System to lower its earnings forecast to 7.5% from 7.75% is positive for local government credit quality in the long term, it means added near-term budgetary pressure for struggling municipalities.

SAN FRANCISCO — Two conduit bond issuers run by private firms appear to be the only entities out of thousands of government agencies in California that do not have to disclose any employee salaries.

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is going to restart the public hearing process on rate increases proposed last year to pay for a five-year, $6.1 billion capital plan the agency says it needs to replace aging infrastructure and meet state and federal environmental mandates.

California Controller John Chiang has ordered an investigation into Stockton's finances following the city's admission of accounting mistakes.

SAN FRANCISCO —The projected price tag for California's planned high-speed rail system between San Francisco and Los Angeles has been cut by a third.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles will be borrowing, but there won't be much new money for new projects in the near future.

SAN FRANCISCO — California Treasurer Bill Lockyer is sending another legislative broadside at conduit issuers run by private companies.