Washington

The congressionally-mandated sequestration could take about $60 million of income and sales tax revenue from the District of Columbia's economy and cause the city to lose about $30 million in federal grants and payments in fiscal 2014, district officials said Tuesday.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Jo White's annual salary is $165,300, far below the base compensation of any of the top-paid, full-time officials of 21 self-regulatory, industry, government, and other municipal securities-related groups, most of which the SEC either oversees or have members the commission regulates or protects.

Groups representing broker-dealers and issuers have sent a joint letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission complaining that the Municipal Securities Rulemaking board had sent SEC an amendment for approval without offering it for public comment, a charge the MSRB denied.

Tennessee has the highest combined state and local rate of 9.44%, a Tax Foundation study said Wednesday.

The Virginia Department of Transportation and the Elizabeth River tunnels' private partner are asking the Virginia Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's ruling that planned tolls for the project and provisions of the state's transportation P3 law are unconstitutional.

Despite improving local revenue growth, severe budget challenges persist at the local level, namely the unsustainable nature of defined benefit contribution plans, a Wells Fargo Securities report said Monday.

The Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority will pay the Internal Revenue Service $13.6 million to settle a tax dispute over $219.49 million of bonds issued it in 2006.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced Thursday that it has fined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC $1 million and ordered the company to pay $188,000 in restitution plus interest for violations of municipal and corporate bond rules.

A weak financial report released by Providence Health & Services, Wash., will not affect its debt rating and outlook, said analysts at Standard & Poor's.

Moody's Investors Service has revised its outlook for the U.S. states sector to stable from negative, while the outlook for local governments remains negative.

The Internal Revenue Service sent an updated Form 5701 Notice of Proposed Issue to Florida's Village Center Community Development District this week with regard to it not being a political subdivision for tax-exempt financing purposes.

Six months after Zapata County, Texas received notification from the Internal Revenue Service, that $9.97 million of their bonds were being audited, the county is working to resolve the tax law dispute and may end up paying a settlement or refunding its bonds.

Officials overseeing bankrupt JeffCo get a lesson in "disclosure responsibilities" from disclosure expert John McNally, a partner at Hawkins, Delafield, & Wood.

Congress should establish a national infrastructure bank and offset the appropriation for it with revenue from a one-time repatriation tax holiday, the Brookings Institution urged in a report released Thursday.

Issuers, non-dealer municipal advisors, and financial reform advocates are upset that the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board' "public members" continue to have close ties to dealer firms, complaining this undermines the Dodd-Frank Act intent that the board be majority public.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $69.83 million of sales tax revenue refunding bonds issued by the Regional Transportation District in Colorado in 2007.

A proposed utility tax increase that will be voted on in November is a credit neutral for Tacoma Power, Moody's Investors Service said.

Sales of municipal bonds in the Far West region grew by almost 11% during the first half of 2013 compared to a year earlier as low rates continued to drive volume.