Washington

WASHINGTON - Taxpayers will have to contribute an average of $1,398 per household per year over the next 30 years, either through tax hikes or reduced public services, to fulfill public-sector pension obligations, according to a study released Tuesday.

Seattle will slash $10 million from its general fund budget to close budget gaps through the end of the year.

Housing groups and bond dealers are urging the Internal Revenue Service not to adopt a proposed change in the way the average area purchase price is determined associated with mortgages financed with the proceeds of single-family housing bonds.

As one dramatic chapter in Regions Financial Corp.'s history ends, another is about to begin.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority announced Wednesday that it has tapped a new leader after a difficult selection process and during a time of controversy about the second phase of its Metrorail extension project.

WASHINGTON - State and local governments should develop standards to bolster public pension disclosure or federal regulators may mandate improvements for them, a Securities and Exchange Commission official warned Tuesday.

The Financial Regulatory Industry Authority fined Wells Fargo Advisors LLC $13,000 and ordered it to pay restitution of almost $8,628 to a municipal customer for violating pricing and fair-dealing rules.

The Internal Revenue Service has completed a routine audit of $250 million of Build America Bonds issued by Denver School District No. 1, with no change to the subsidy payments the issuer receives from the federal government.

WASHINGTON — Ballard Spahr LLP is promoting public finance attorney Joseph Fanone to managing partner in its Washington, D.C., office, the firm announced Monday.

Tender rates for the Treasury Department's latest 91-day and 182-day discount bills were lower, as the three-months incurred a 0.035% high rate, down from 0.050% the previous week, and the six-months incurred a 0.100% high rate, off from 0.105%.

WASHINGTON - State and local government groups are launching campaigns to protect the tax-exempt interest for municipal bonds against cost-cutting efforts in Congress.

WASHINGTON - The Bipartisan Policy Center released a new spending reform plan Thursday that calls for a near quadrupling of the U.S. Transportation Department's TIFIA program from a $122 million annual appropriation to $450 million.

The congressional Joint Tax Committee has estimated that President Obama's fiscal 2012 budget proposal to permanently reinstate Build America Bonds at a 28% subsidy rate would result in net revenue losses of $5.7 billion to the federal government over a 10-year period.

BRADENTON, Fla. - South Miami is seeking a taxable bank loan to fund a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service over impermissible uses of tax-exempt bond and bank loan proceeds to build a parking garage.

Washington's economic recovery has slowed since March after fairly strong growth in the early part of the year, according to state figures.

WASHINGTON — Budget cuts proposed by Republicans would foster uncertainty in the derivatives market but would not interfere with new rulemaking, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's chairman warned members of a Senate panel Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — Martha Mahan Haines, 59, the Securities and Exchange Commission's muni chief, will retire at the end of June after 12 years in the SEC's municipal securities office.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $19 million of tax-increment refunding revenue bonds that were issued by Missouri's Florissant Industrial Development Authority in 2003.

An advisory committee to the Internal Revenue Service recommended that it treat conduit borrowers as taxpayers for compliance matters so it can deal with them directly and cause less unnecessary burdens for transaction participants.

WASHINGTON - The District of Columbia Council voted 11 to 2 to approve a proposed $10.8 billion budget for fiscal 2012 that would impose a local tax on non-district municipal bonds beginning on Jan. 1, 2011.