California

Voters in bankrupt Vallejo reauthorized the city’s utility user tax, saving $5.2 million of revenue for the city’s $75 million general fund.

The Bay Area Toll Authority this week began public hearings on proposed toll increases on seven state-owned toll bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will have an opportunity to nominate a new lieutenant governor, as the current officeholder, John Garamendi, won a special election Tuesday for the U.S. House.

Moody’s Investors Service Tuesday issued one-notch downgrades to bonds issued by Palomar Pomerado Health, a hospital district in San Diego County.

SAN FRANCISCO — After a session that lasted until 6:00 yesterday morning, California lawmakers signed a massive water infrastructure package that includes an $11.1 billion general obligation bond measure.

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Senate, poised to convert years of water policy debates into legislation, approved bills late Monday that include a $9.99 billion bond measure.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last week proposed borrowing to speed construction on $20 billion of mass transit projects approved by Los Angeles County voters last year.

SAN FRANCISCO — It was a strange day yesterday in the world of California finance, as the state treasurer’s office announced a sudden Build America Bonds sale while the state’s finance director said he planned to resign.

After digesting a revised $7.67 billion in new volume last week, the municipal market will face an estimated $9.59 billion this week, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer, as the California market again takes center stage — this time with a $1.5 billion sale of general obligation bonds catering to retail investors.

SAN FRANCISCO — California, Oregon, and Nevada have taken a harsh battering in the Great Recession, but lawmakers in the three Far West states have reacted very differently.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. — A bankruptcy judge indicated this week that he is likely to approve a liquidation plan for the assets of Copia, the failed Napa, Calif. nonprofit wine museum.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco International Airport last week used a tender offer to refinance as tax-exempt about $120 million of private-activity bond debt that had been subject to the alternative minimum tax, making it the first airport to successfully pull off the maneuver.

SAN FRANCISCO — California is moving forward with plans to sell 11 state-owned office buildings to investors who would lease them back to the state.

SAN FRANCISCO — California plans one of the biggest long-term tax-exempt bond offerings of the year next week, $3 billion of sales tax-backed economic recovery bonds in a deal created to restructure the state’s outstanding deficit bonds to account for unexpected weakness in sales tax revenue.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — While the “California Dream” was evoked frequently, panelists at this week’s Milken Institute State of the State Conference were more apt to talk about saving the dream than celebrating it.

As it had promised for weeks, the California Redevelopment Association Tuesday filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court to stop a $2.05 billion shift of redevelopment funds from local agencies to help balance the state general fund.

California political leaders continue to deliberate over a potential water infrastructure package, but they were not ready to bring it to a vote this week as had been expected.

In a year when California’s budget writers have borrowed almost $2 billion of local governments’ property tax revenues, and ordered a permanent shift of more than $2 billion in redevelopment funds, their advocates have prepared a ballot measure that would bar such actions in the future.

Fitch Ratings last week downgraded the Capistrano Unified School District School Facilities Improvement District No. 1’s general obligation bonds by two notches to A-plus from AA.

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners, the governing body for Los Angeles World Airports, this week approved the sale of up to $1.625 billion of revenue bonds for Los Angeles International Airport.