Washington

CHICAGO — Washington Treasurer James McIntire last week chided Standard & Poor’s, charging that the rating agency inaccurately reported the funded status of his state’s pension system in a recent national report on looming pension funding and policy challenges facing states.

Six state and local groups are urging the Senate to pass an extension to the Build America Bonds program, which they say is critical to governments during this time of unprecedented budgetary strain.

Dealers would have to submit bidding information for auction-rate securities in a set of individual data points rather than in document form under changes the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board submitted Friday on a proposed expansion of its transparency system for ARS and variable-rate demand obligations.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Transit Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation Thursday announced $300 million in competitive grants for cities and local agencies to pay for 53 transit proposals including bus, streetcar and trolley projects.

WASHINGTON — New York City Comptroller John Liu is calling on the state’s congressional delegation to press the Internal Revenue Service to provide consistent and specific guidance on controversial issues surrounding the Build America Bond program.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has closed an audit of $52.5 million of bonds issued by the Ave Maria Stewardship Community District in southwest Florida with no change to the tax-exempt status of the debt, the district disclosed this week.

WASHINGTON — Programs that allow localities to issue bonds to finance loans for homeowners seeking energy-efficient upgrades have hit a wall after a federal regulator directed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to tighten their underwriting standards before they purchase mortgages tied to the loans.

DALLAS — The Port of Seattle will upgrade equipment at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and refinance several series of outstanding debt with proceeds from next week’s negotiated sale of $394.6 million of intermediate-line revenue bonds.

WASHINGTON — This month is a significant milestone for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, marking its one-year anniversary as the sole official repository for muni issuers’ continuing disclosure documents.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — With two upgrades in hand, the city-owned electric utility in Tacoma, Wash., has a $200 million revenue bond deal on the calendar next week.

More than $150 million of federal broadband grants were awarded Friday to governmental, publicly owned or bond-issuing nonprofit organizations.

WASHINGTON — Airports would receive steady funding until August, and the federal government would reclaim $17.4 million of unused transit funding this fiscal year, if two separate bills approved this week by the Senate and a House committee become law.

WASHINGTON — The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s outlook was revised to negative by Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday, ahead of a $350 million revenue bond transaction it has scheduled for later this month.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday unanimously adopted rules designed to prevent investment advisers from making political contributions to elected officials to obtain business from state and local pension funds, investment pools and college savings accounts.

Congress’ failure to pass a six-month extension of enhanced federal matching funds under the Federal Medicaid ­Assistance Program will deprive states of billions of dollars in expected revenue, lead to drastic cuts in programs and result in the loss of thousands of jobs, 13 governors warned Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — About 30 states must revisit their fiscal 2011 budgets to compensate for the loss of expected enhanced federal matching Medicaid funds that were in a jobs bill Congress failed to approve last week.

Combined state and local government tax receipts rose modestly in the first quarter as the revenue sources most sensitive to swings in the economy picked up along with economic growth.

The House yesterday unanimously approved legislation that would extend airport funding for one month and give airports the ability to collect passenger facilities charges, which they often use to repay bonds.

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators would spend months, if not years, implementing the sweeping changes to the municipal market that were outlined in the financial regulatory reform legislation finalized by House and Senate negotiators late last week.

A wastewater plant built by a pharmaceutical company with exempt facility bonds does not violate tax laws or rules because the waste’s acidity level has to be neutralized before it can be sent to a public treatment facility, the Internal Revenue Service ruled.