Washington

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.

President Obama's two nominees to the Securities and Exchange Commission navigated their confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday only to have David Vitter hold up their nominations.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has proposed to delay some rules for the swaps market until as late as Dec. 31, 2011.

The Department of Transportation is proposing high-speed rail projects be built with 100% American-made parts and equipment.

An advisory committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday and submit five reports to the Internal Revenue Service, including one on the role of conduit issuers in tax compliance and another on tribal economic development bonds, according to members.

WASHINGTON - State and local governments will lose at least $10.1 billion this year in tax revenue not collected on Internet transactions - a figure some experts believe is too low - while federal legislation that would grant states the authority to collect online sales taxes has stalled amid anti-tax sentiment.

WASHINGTON - Market participants are urging the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to clarify, in its proposed business-conduct standards for swap dealers, that dealers should not be required to put a state or local government issuer's interests ahead of their own.

WASHINGTON — The Bond Dealers of America unveiled guidelines Wednesday designed to help dealers comply with suitability, disclosure and pricing rules when dealing with retail investors.

WASHINGTON — The Village Center Community Development District in Florida is asking the Internal Revenue Service for legal advice on whether it is a political subdivision — an issue critical to the tax-exempt status of million of bonds it issued.

Bond lawyers are urging the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to avoid issuing new guidance to address whether Build America Bonds issued by a state or locality would continue to exist, or be considered “extinguished,” if they were purchased by a related entity such as the public pension fund or state lottery.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers is urging the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to include, as a priority, guidance on whether the benefits provided to bonds issued under the stimulus law would apply to refundings of those bonds.