Washington

WASHINGTON — The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is set to kick off a series of public hearings next week on its preliminary draft pension-fund accounting and financial reporting standards that are designed to boost the disclosure of public pension liabilities but are proving to be controversial.

WASHINGTON — Municipal market participants should not expect the Treasury Department to simply rubber-stamp the existing tax-exempt bond rules for issue price when it comes to Build America Bonds, a Treasury official told bond lawyers at a recent meeting.

SAN FRANCISCO — Industry experts echoed concerns Wednesday about regulatory changes in the municipal bond industry and the possible impact the changes may have in the coming weeks and months.

Despite recent warnings from some financial experts that the ongoing financial troubles of state and local governments will lead to municipal bond defaults, state credits remain much more stable than corporate credits, Moody’s Investors Service said Wednesday.

City tax revenues are following the lead of state tax revenues, showing record-breaking declines that are not expected to improve this year or next, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the National League of Cities.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department wants to hear from the public about the form issuers must file to recover excess amounts of arbitrage they rebated to the federal government.

Residents of five states with fiscal challenges would rather lawmakers continue to cut spending or raise taxes than borrow to cover short-term budget deficits, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States and the Public Policy Institute of ­California.

WASHINGTON — Market participants are sharply divided on the Municipal Securities ­Rulemaking Board’s draft proposal to prohibit dealers from underwriting new negotiated or competitive bond issues if they served as the issuer’s financial adviser on the transaction.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has told the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority that $3.5 million of development revenue bonds it issued in 2005 to finance a manufacturing facility could be ­taxable.

The House last week approved a bill that would allow state transportation departments and other tolling entities to offer discounted tolls to residents and nearby commuters, as individuals challenge the discounts in at least three lawsuits against tolling agencies.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced the members of its new, majority-public board Friday, hours after it proposed a series of large fee increases to defray the technology costs for its EMMA site as well as expenses tied to the regulation of municipal advisers under the Dodd-Frank Act.

The National Congress of American Indians is urging the Treasury Department to revoke the burdensome “essential governmental function” test for tribal tax-exempt financings, as well as allow tribes to take advantage of private-activity bonds and use federal guarantees.

Congress and the Obama administration would be wasting an opportunity to revive infrastructure if they set up a national infrastructure bank and its investment-selection process the same way that existing programs are structured, an economic analyst said here Friday morning.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is preparing a proposal for a multi-year transportation bill that will talk about the importance of developing “institutional capacity” to support a national high-speed rail network, a federal rail official revealed Wednesday night at a conference here.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday signed off on rule changes that make the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board a majority-public self-regulator and allow it to temporarily expand to 21 from 15 members beginning Friday, the start of its new fiscal year.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch its new office of municipal securities by the end of October, chairman Mary Schapiro said in prepared testimony presented to the Senate Banking Committee Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers early Thursday approved a stopgap measure that would fund the federal government at current levels until Dec. 3, before breaking for an election recess. Their action sets the stage for a lame-duck session during which municipal market participants hope they will take up legislation to extend Build America Bonds and other expiring or expired bond-related programs authorized by the stimulus law.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission has quietly hired the head-hunting firm Korn/Ferry ­International to find candidates to lead a new municipal securities office that will have a higher stature within the SEC.

Congress is expected to leave town either late Wednesday or early Thursday to campaign for the fall elections after approving stopgap spending legislation that would keep the federal government running in fiscal 2011, which starts on Oct. 1.

WASHINGTON — Congress should create two types of direct-pay transportation bonds to help states and localities build and repair crumbling infrastructure, market participants told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during a hearing Tuesday.