Washington

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has moved its library of electronic disclosures of dealers' political contributions to the EMMA system, the board announced Monday.

With sequestration looming, and the tax-exempt bond threatened, market experts at the National Municipal Bond Summit believe that alternative financing can be achieved with taxable bonds.

The sequestration cuts scheduled to take effect March 1 could throw the muni market into uncertainty and slam the air transport sector, according to market groups and public officials.

The tax exemption on municipal bond interest will not survive tax reform efforts in Washington, D.C., without a grass-roots effort from issuers, according to market experts at the fifth National Municipal Bond Summit.

Chicago received 16 responses in its first market outreach to identify prospective bidders in a possible deal to privatize Midway International Airport, according to the city's chief financial officer Lois Scott.

The Internal Revenue Service closed an audit of $39.24 million general obligation bonds issued in 2007 by Manchester, Conn., with no change to the bonds' tax-exempt status.

Municipal market participants are encouraged but cautious about President Obama's proposal for a new type of taxable, direct-pay bond called America Fast Forward bonds to finance the nation's infrastructure.

Lotteries are a key source of revenue for 44 states nationwide, but players' evolving tastes and record-low interest rates have contributed to put lotteries in a precarious position, according to the head of the industry's leading interest group.

Moody's Investors Service Wednesday downgraded to A2 from Aa3 a Washington hospital's limited tax general obligation bonds affecting $223.9 million in debt.

Pullman, Wash.'s general obligation bond ratings has been cut to A1 from Aa3 by Moody's Investors Service due to weak finances.

A water district employee in Lake Forest Park, Wash. pilfered more than $350,000 of ratepayer money by using her children a state audit found, according to local reports.

A new Reason Foundation study analyzing road trends over the past two decades challenges claims of "crumbling infrastructure," which have been used by transportation advocates and policymakers as justification for everything from higher taxes to new or expanded bond programs.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board should harmonize its rules with those of other regulatory agencies, conduct thorough analysis of the costs imposed by its rules and clarify language in the rules to make them less ambiguous for market participants and compliance examiners, said comment letters filed with the board in recent days.

President Obama stepped up pressure on Congress Tuesday to avoid the "meat-cleaver approach" of automatic, across-the-board federal budget cuts that are set to go into effect on March 1.

The IRS is auditing two separate issuers to address the accuracy of form 8038-T, a project the agency has taken up as one of their fiscal 2013 goals. Form 8038-T is filed by issuers when making an arbitrage payment.

Sales of municipal bonds in the Far West region grew by almost a quarter in 2012 compared to a year ago, spurred by record low interest rates that led to an increase in refinancing.

Several major airport credits could be negatively affected by operational shifts in the wake of the US Airways/American Airlines Merger, officially announced Thursday.

The state Senate passed a bill Monday that would authorize $475 million of general obligation bonds for school construction.

Seattle voters passed two school levies worth $1.2 billion during a special election Tuesday.

Public finance officials and infrastructure investors need to stop talking about "the deal" and start managing political risks with clear, easily understood language, participants at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce panel said Wednesday.