Washington

WASHINGTON — State transportation officials are warning of dire consequences for both improvement projects and the bond issues they may use to finance them if Congress allows federal aid for state and local highway and transit projects to end Sept. 30.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has opened an audit of $360.7 million of bonds issued in 2009 by Vernon, Calif., which has been roiled by political scandals and could be disincorporated pending the outcome of state legislation.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board held a regional roundtable session with local finance officials from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia last week, in what may become the first of a series of such events here and around the nation.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed a proposed rule and interpretive notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission that details how municipal advisors would have to comply with their fiduciary duty to put the interests of issuers and other clients first.

WASHINGTON — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has tapped Gary Barnett to serve as director of its new Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed a proposed rule with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require muni advisors to establish supervisory systems to ensure they and their "associated persons" comply with SEC and MSRB rules.

WASHINGTON - Garvee bond ratings are at risk from the increasingly unpredictable budget and policy process in Washington, Standard & Poor's warned in a report released Friday.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed a new proposed rule with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would prevent municipal advisors from engaging in pay-to-play practices, making political contributions to state and local government officials to influence the award of advisory business.

BRADENTON, Fla. - South Miami, has reached a closing agreement and settlement with the Internal Revenue Service over impermissible uses of tax-exempt bond and bank loan proceeds to build a parking garage.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service finalized its regulations for tax-exempt financing of solid-waste disposal facilities, adopting most of the recommendations proposed by attorneys last year, market participants said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - State and local groups are sizing up the new congressional deficit reduction committee, determined to preserve tax-exemption for municipal bonds but acknowledging that federal funds for some of their programs will likely be cut.

Washington is bracing for a slowdown after July-August revenues came in 1.3% lower than June’s forecast, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council said.

WASHINGTON - Lurking in the legislative weeds on Capitol Hill is another threat to states' and localities' ability to fund bond-financed and other transportation projects.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service has closed an audit of the Highlands County Health Facilities Authority's 2005 refunding bonds with no change to their tax-exempt status.

Moody's Investors Service is proposing changes to its methodology for rating public power companies, which are not happy about the potential effect on their bond ratings.

Though he is "cautious" about the need for more monetary action since "we do not yet have enough information to conclude the economy won't resume a healthier pace of growth," Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta president Dennis Lockhart Monday said the Fed has the tools, if needed, to ease policy.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined eight firms a total of $120,000 and asked two to pay almost $6,000 in restitution to customers for violating muni pricing, gift, trade, fair-dealing, and supervisory rules.

Alan D. Polsky, senior vice president of Minneapolis-based Dougherty & Co. and former chair of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, will become chairman of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board beginning Oct. 1, according to market sources.

CHICAGO - Nonprofit health care issuers already bracing for steep government reimbursement cuts from the new federal health care law now face a new round of cuts tied to the debt-ceiling deal.

WASHINGTON - Morgan Stanley is poised to pay $6.5 million to settle charges made in a series of antitrust lawsuits that municipal issuers have filed over alleged bid-rigging of muni bond-related investments, even though the issuers do not appear to have found evidence showing the firm engaged in bid-rigging.