California

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the long-term underlying rating on the Sacramento Transportation Authority’s variable-rate revenue bonds from to Aa3 from Aa2.

Moody’s Investors Services changed its outlook from positive to stable on $100 million of fixed-rate revenue bonds that Chapman University, a private school in Orange County, plans to issue.

LOS ANGELES - Vernon, a corruption-plagued city in greater Los Angeles, received a second chance to clean up its act when the California Legislature rejected measures that would have disincorporated the city.

The company looking to develop a National Football League stadium in Los Angeles saw two challenges crop up late last week.

SAN FRANCISCO — California Controller John Chiang has ordered an investigation of the troubled city of Hercules after uncovering what he calls major discrepancies in its financial reports.

LOS ANGELES — A high-profile bill in the California Legislature would disband the city of Vernon, handing the industrial hub and its 50,000 jobs to Los Angeles County. But county officials are increasingly uneasy about Vernon and its $511 million of bond debt.

The California's Joint Legislative Audit Committee voted Wednesday to conduct an audit of the state's hospitals to see if they meet the public benefits requirements needed to maintain their tax-exempt status.

Nearly a year after a municipal corruption scandal blew up in the Los Angeles County city of Bell, resulting in the forced resignation of top officials, new leaders say the city is beginning to take the initial steps toward fiscal health.

The Port of Oakland was able to achieve $29.2 million in present-value debt service savings by selling $345.7 million of refunding revenue bonds — the highest known level of savings achieved by the port on a refunding, officials said.

The California state auditor will investigate the controversial proposal by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to spend $179 million of bridge toll dollars to move its office from Oakland to San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO — California has set Sept. 20 as the date for its first general obligation bond sale of the year and has put another on the calendar, although the size of both deals remains undecided.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco International Airport will sell $450 million of refunding bonds this week in a quick follow-up to a deal earlier this summer in order to take advantage of a favorable market.

Chapman University, a private university in Orange County is seeking approval from the California Educational Facilities Authority to issue $100 million worth of bonds to construct new buildings and improve existing facilities.

SAN FRANCISCO - Municipal bond volume in the Far West in the first half of 2011 fell by more than half from the same period a year earlier, driven by zero deals from the state of California, normally the largest issuer in the country.

Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday ordered an investigation into the finances of the troubled city of Vernon.

California’s Department of Finance said general fund July revenue came in $541 million below the forecast in the recently adopted budget. The figure fell more than 9% short of the fiscal 2012 budget forecast of $5.86 billion, confirming a similar reading released last week by Controller John Chiang.

California plans to sell $5.4 billion of revenue anticipation notes the week of Sept. 12 to pay off the bridge loan secured at the end of July to avoid market chaos, according to the state treasurer’s office. Wells Fargo Securities and Barclays Capital are joint senior managers.

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County Museum of Art officials say changes to Moody's Investors Service methodology have more to do with a recent downgrade than anything the museum did.

SAN FRANCISCO - Los Angeles has dropped Standard & Poor's from rating its $7 billion investment portfolio after the agency downgraded it along with the United States last week.

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Department of Water Resources will sell $1 billion of power revenue bonds this week as part of a plan to refund debt sold in 2002 due to the state's energy crisis.