Washington

State revenues jumped 5.3% in 2013, but officials are worried that a slowdown next year is imminent, a National Conference of State Legislatures report said.

The University of Washington is planning to sell $143 million of general revenue bonds next week to finance various capital improvements, including the renovation of the Husky Stadium.

Seeking to avoid the implementation of further continuing disclosure regulations, the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers, and Treasurers has released new best practices urging state governments to voluntarily disclose nearly all financial and economic data.

Moody's Investors Service is considering changing how it rates local government general obligation bonds to increase the weight of its analysis for debt and pension liabilities, it announced Wednesday.

The District of Columbia will issue $99.43 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund to finance construction of a new museum.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has announced a slate of officer and director nominees the group will vote on at NABL's annual meeting Sept. 25 in Chicago.

Baptist Health South Florida Obligated Group has agreed to pay $597,751 to settle Internal Revenue Service alleged tax rule violations and preserve the tax-exempt status of $800 million of hospital revenue bonds issued in 2007.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has released a continuing disclosure guide providing issuers with a road map of their obligations under MSRB rules, citing a slew of recent federal enforcement actions in which issuers sometimes failed to file the required information.

Ed Murray came out on top in Seattle's primary election for mayor on Tuesday, followed closely by incumbent Mike McGinn. The pair move on to the general election.

In an action that could affect numerous transactions across the country, the Internal Revenue Service has determined that revenue bonds issued by a New Jersey authority for the Deborah Heart and Lung Center are taxable because the borrower entered into a total return swap.

Tax law changes allowing the tax credits of tax-credit bonds to be stripped and sold separately to investors have increased the risk for improper or fraudulent tax credit claims, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a June 26 report.

The Senate confirmed Michael Piwowar and Kara Stein as members of the Securities and Exchange Commission by unanimous consent Thursday evening.

Moody's Investors Service has revised its outlook for the District of Columbia's approximately $2.2 billion of outstanding general obligation bonds to stable from negative, and the ratings agency affirmed the bonds' Aa2 rating.

Nearly a dozen state and local groups are urging Congress to restore significant cuts that were made to the clean water and drinking water state revolving fund programs in the latest appropriations bill.

Washington State is planning to sell $864 million of general obligation bonds in a competitive offering next week after receiving improved outlooks from two credit rating agencies.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is seeking input from market participants on whether it should collect pre-trade pricing information from broker-dealers and make it available over its online EMMA system.

If the top individual tax rate were lowered to 25% from the current 39.6%, as favored by Republicans, and the alternative minimum tax were repealed, it would cost $3.77 trillion over 10 years, a new Joint Committee on Taxation report said Wednesday.

The National Association of Water Companies is urging the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to change the remedial actions that must be taken when bonds no longer meet private activity bond restrictions, claiming the current ones deter or burden public-private partnerships.

The Senate Finance Committee's top Republican said Wednesday that Detroit's bankruptcy filing and Chicago's pension problems illustrate the need for legislation he has proposed that would allow state and local governments to turn to move from defined benefit plans to life insurance company annual annuities.

President Obama described a pro-growth tax reform and jobs package during a speech in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Tuesday, but many of the municipal bond-related measures proposed were ones he unveiled earlier.