Washington

Five groups representing local governments are urging Senate Finance Committee leaders to maintain the federal tax-exemption for municipal bonds, ensure states and localities retain the authority to set their own tax policies, and refrain from preempting governments and threatening their fiscal health by granting preferential tax treatment to certain industries.

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia will price $320 million of income tax-secured tax-exempt bonds next week to refund three previous debt issues, district officials said.

A taxpayer with a marginal income tax rate of 7.5% would have been indifferent to purchasing high-rated tax-exempt or taxable corporate bonds last year because there was only a .35% spread between these bonds, a joint Congressional committee concluded in a report issued Monday.

Market participants are stepping up their efforts in support of muni-friendly provisions in the Senate highway bill, as that body prepares to head to conference with the House to resolve differences in legislation each chamber has passed providing funding for the nation's surface transportation programs.

CHICAGO — The Federal Trade Commission's success so far in challenging two high-profile hospital mergers could signal fresh pressure on the sector, which is in the midst of a transforming consolidation trend.

LAS VEGAS — The National Federation of Municipal Analysts presented awards to market participants, including issuers for the first time, at its annual award dinner here Thursday night.

WASHINGTON — A majority of governments, nonprofits, corporations and institutional investors surveyed would either reduce or discontinue their use of money market funds if the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted certain reforms, such as switching to a floating net-asset value, according to a study done for the Investment Company Institute.

Municipal bond issuers now may be more open to declaring bankruptcy and defaulting on loan payments, panelists said at the National Federation of Municipal Analysts annual meeting here Thursday.

WASHINGTON — State tax revenues at the end of last year rose for the first time above the peak levels at the beginning of the Great Recession after two straight years of growth, the Rockefeller Institute said in a report issued Thursday.

Speakers at a municipal analysts' conference here urged the muni bond community to educate lawmakers and regulators about the importance of tax-free financing, noting that few officials in Washington, D.C., understand the role muni bonds play in financing critical state and local infrastructure projects.

A Senate subcommittee hearing on bridge and tunnel tolls turned into a battleground as state and authority officials defended rising tolls and opposed legislation sponsored by subcommittee chairman Frank Lautenberg, warning it could cripple their abilities to raise revenue and finance projects.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has revoked the tax-exempt status of American Health Foundation Inc., raising questions about the tax-exemption of $28.96 million of refunding and revenue bonds that issuers in five states sold for three of its subordinate entities.

The tale of the tape continued Wednesday in the municipal bond bid-rigging trial in Manhattan, as prosecutors, interspersing audio tapes and transcripts with bid documents, called to the stand another former employee of brokerage CDR Financial Services, seeking to establish a pattern of fraud by three former executives of General Electric Co. subsidiaries.

WASHINGTON — Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad, D-Neb., on Tuesday introduced the Bowles-Simpson budget deficit reduction proposal as his long-term budget plan and said the committee will begin considering it Wednesday.

Rep. Pat Tiberi, chairman of a House Ways and Means Committee panel, called for the elimination of most tax expenditures as part of comprehensive tax reform, which he said should be as pro-growth as possible and simplify the tax code.

WASHINGTON — Virginia won applause from Moody's Investors Service this week following an overhaul of its pension system, but neighboring Maryland received flak as the credit rating agency warned its proposed budget cuts could harm the credit of local governments.

The federal prosecutors in a municipal bond bid-rigging trial that began in New York accused three executives of fraud that cost cities and towns, and the IRS, millions of dollars.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered six firms to pay a total of $234,924 in fines and restitution for violations of municipal securities rules, the self-regulator announced Monday.

WASHINGTON — Industry groups and municipal market professionals are urging the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to modify proposed rules aimed at ensuring underwriters and dealers comply with issuers' so-called retail-order periods.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved a $422 million TIFIA loan for construction of a new midtown tunnel and rehabilitation of existing tunnels in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va.