California

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s controller is pushing new legislation that would strengthen state oversight over local government finances and audits.

SAN FRANCISCO — A nonprofit mental-health service provider in Los Angeles County has gone belly-up, leaving a state-backed insurer on the hook for more than $5 million of bonds.

SACRAMENTO — Vallejo, Calif., is closing in on settlements with creditors that would smooth its escape from bankruptcy, according to its attorney.

SAN FRANCISCO — In this city known for its eccentricities, why should retiree benefit reform be any different?

SAN FRANCISCO — Hercules, Calif., is dealing with a fiscal and political mess that will require an effort worthy of its name to right its finances and pay debt service on $162 million of bonds.

SAN FRANCISCO — The California cities of Sacramento and Anaheim are in a tug-of-war over the fate of a National Basketball Association franchise, with bonds tied to each end.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The collapse of California budget negotiations this week brings with it questions about the state’s ability to schedule its annual, multibillion-dollar note sale to fund its cash flow.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has reached a tentative deal with a coalition of unions that could help curb the city’s ballooning pension and retiree health care benefit costs.

VICTORVILLE, Calif. — Despite a tempest of bad news about its finances, Victorville city leaders say bondholders are safe.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California’s seemingly intractable budget and cash-flow problems have hit school districts hard, forcing many to enter into increasingly complex arrangements to keep cash flowing, experts said.

City leaders in Santa Clara will give $4 million of redevelopment funds to the San Francisco 49ers football team to get a head start on fixing up a new stadium site.

San Francisco voters will get another chance to weigh in on reforming the city’s pension and retiree medical benefit costs.

LOS ANGELES — California’s Sierra Kings Healthcare District is nearing a deal that could lead to its exit from Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Many California redevelopment agencies are facing major credit challenges that have nothing to do with the governor’s plan to eliminate them, Fitch Ratings said in a special report released Monday.

LOS ANGELES — The Southern California city of Costa Mesa has sent pink slips to around half of its workers as it weighs outsourcing a range of services to corral spending.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit District in California remains on track to debut in the bond market this spring, but the limits of the sales tax it relies on for funding will limit the scope of the rail transit line it plans to build, its board of directors learned here last week at a workshop.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The California Legislature adopted a budget bill for fiscal 2012 last week, though the toughest decisions required by that plan were deferred until this week.

San Francisco’s unfunded pension and retiree health care liabilities have ballooned to around $6 billion, according to a report by a Stanford academic and former California assemblyman.

Policy makers at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System voted this week to disregard the advice of their chief actuary and keep the retirement system’s assumed annual rate of investment return at 7.75%.

California Controller John Chiang Monday released an actuarial report saying the state faces a $59.9 billion bill to pay for health care and dental benefits for state retirees over the next 30 years.