California

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California’s attorney general appears to have thrown a monkey wrench into school districts’ common practice of paying for issuance costs using original issue premium.

The California Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of an appellate ruling requiring developers of many community facilities districts to pay so-called prevailing wages for all public improvements, whether or not they are financed with bonds.

Los Angeles voters Tuesday approved a ballot measure to create a lower level of benefits for newly hired police officers and firefighters.

The California Senate on Monday confirmed Ana Matosantos as director of the Department of Finance.

Voters in the beleaguered Southern California city of Bell tossed out their entire City Council during a recall election Tuesday.

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Sierra Kings Health Care District’s general obligation bonds to Baa3 from Ba2 after a federal judge ruled that GO debt service cannot be interrupted by the district’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing.

SAN FRANCISCO — The city of Vallejo, Calif., must disclose more information about the role of its mayor and bankruptcy law firm in past bond deals due to accusations of conflicts of interest, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

SACRAMENTO — A federal bankruptcy judge said he will set a date in June for the final showdown with creditors on Vallejo, Calif.’s plan to try and rid itself of debt.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California’s redevelopment agencies have failed to provide a coherent explanation for their existence, according to state Controller John Chiang.

SAN FRANCISCO — Vallejo retirees have fired another salvo in a battle for scarce funds in the California city’s proposed plan to exit bankruptcy, including conflict of interest accusations against the city’s mayor and law firm.

SAN FRANCISCO — Crushed during the recession, California’s real estate market so far has been spared from a tide of defaults on land-secured bonds — so far.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — In what has become something of an annual Sacramento ritual, California Controller John Chiang released a letter to lawmakers and the governor warning of the negative consequences of failing to enact a budget that is both on time and balanced.

Vallejo has been mired in a messy, prolonged and expensive bankruptcy proceeding since May 2008. But if the California city is “the poster boy of a new era,” as some have suggested, that doesn’t look too bad for bondholders.

California's independent Little Hoover Commission urged the state's leaders to take government employee pension-reform efforts a big step beyond where they have gone so far, by altering benefit levels for current employees.

Moody's Investors Service has placed the California Housing Finance Agency's home mortgage revenue bonds' A3 unenhanced rating on watch for possible downgrade, which could affect $6.2 billion of outstanding debt.

SAN FRANCISCO — A Superior Court judge in California has denied a lawsuit brought by a public employees' union that sought to block a plan for a public-private partnership to rebuild a road linking San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A planned $138 million tax-allocation issue for Fremont’s redevelopment agency is the largest so far this year from RDAs around California rushing to market ahead of their potential demise.

SAN FRANCISCO — Southern California’s Borrego Water District has defaulted on $9.5 million of special-tax bonds owned by Nuveen Asset Management.

House members have proposed almost 600 amendments be added to the continuing resolution needed to keep the federal government operating for the remainder of fiscal 2011, including additional spending cuts that could jeopardize the Los Angeles County Metro extension and other transportation projects.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to lease city garages to private investors to raise money that would close a year-end budget hole and defease bonds is on the rocks.