California

SAN FRANCISCO – Standard & Poor’s has revised the outlook on its A-minus rating for California to positive from stable.

California Treasurer Bill Lockyer announced Monday that the state will go to market with its first general obligation bond issue this year on March 1 with around $2 billion of refunding GOs.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders talked about his approach to pension reform during a speech Monday at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., saying his reform plan could save the city up to $1.2 billion in costs over the next 30 years.

With tobacco consumption continuing to decline, Fitch Ratings last week downgraded $9 billion of tobacco bonds issued by Ohio and California after the two states were forced to draw on reserves to make their Dec. 1 payments.

SAN FRANCISCO – State officials have begun an early effort to find ways for California, Washington and Oregon to save money by cooperating on financing future infrastructure projects pegged in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

LOS ANGELES — Riverside County, Calif.'s financial advisor doesn't expect the county's recent one-notch downgrade from Moody's Investors Service to affect its ability to sell $35.5 million in lease revenue bonds Feb. 16.

San Diego officials are plowing ahead with plans to expand the city's convention center in a project that will require more than half a billion dollars of bonds.

The California Housing Finance Agency has revised a policy that resulted in it foreclosing on homeowners who were current on payments but had been renting out homes financed through the agency. The policy went into effect Monday.

The deficit for Los Angeles Unified School District has grown to $557 million and the district faces layoffs of up to 7,500 employees if it doesn’t receive money from three funding sources, officials said.

Ontario, Calif., officials now say that the $50 million payment they offered to Los Angeles for LA/Ontario International Airport was only part of a $250 million package the city offered to transfer title and operations of its airport, according to published reports.

California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office Monday pointed out concerns it had with Gov. Jerry Brown’s backup budget plan should his tax referendum fail this November.

SAN FRANCISCO — California-based AGFS and Government Financial Strategies have merged their financial advisory practices in what they describe as a melding of shared industry values.

Standard & Poor's slashed Hercules, Calif.'s revenue bonds five notches, partly as a result of bankruptcy statements by city officials.

SAN FRANCISCO — Squire Sanders said it has hired public finance attorney Robyn Helmlinger as a partner in San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO — California Gov. Jerry Brown said Friday he signed a bill into law that will allow the state to shift $865 million around internally to buffer cash-flow needs.

California, traditionally the largest issuer of municipal bonds in the country, is set to constrain its bond sales for another year, tightening supply to one of the hungriest markets of all time.

A bill that would allow municipalities in California to keep affordable housing funds collected by their redevelopment agencies, which were shut down Wednesday, cleared the state Senate.

California cities and redevelopment agencies have spent the past month lamenting the uncertainty wrought by the dissolution of the state's 400-plus redevelopment agencies, but based on trading, municipal bond investors don't appear to share those concerns.

Redevelopment agencies in California will legally vanish Wednesday, with a bill to extend that deadline declared dead by a top lawmaker.

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority doesn't plan to issue bonds this year because it is securing a $546 million federal loan to help fund the $1.74 billion Crenshaw Line light-rail project.