Washington

WASHINGTON — The federal government should make tribal economic development bonds a permanent tool for Indian tribes and should consider raising or removing the current $2 billion ceiling on the program given the clear demand that exists for the bonds, an advisory committee said in a report sent to the Internal Revenue Service this week.

Several Democratic governors are lobbying to extend through June 2011 the increased federal Medicaid match they have been receiving since the passage of the stimulus last year.

ATLANTA — Dealers are calling for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to revise and clarify several aspects of draft interpretive guidance that outlines the steps they must take to ensure the prices they charge customers when buying and selling municipal securities are fair and reasonable.

ATLANTA — The head of the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt bond office said yesterday that it’s premature for issuers to focus on the number of Build America Bond audits the IRS will conduct because the office is still gathering as much information about BABs as possible and ultimately wants to devote its energies to finding true abuses in the muni market.

As a U.S. Treasury Department bond program intended to help housing finance agencies nears its halfway point, results are lagging behind expectations, Standard & Poor’s warned in a report issued Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — Build America Bond issuers that inadvertently violate tax law requirements and voluntarily seek to correct them would have their federal subsidy payments reduced, rather than eliminated, if the Internal Revenue Service adopts recommendations an advisory committee presented to it yesterday.

ATLANTA — Municipal issuers are overreacting to recent developments surrounding the compliance program for Build America Bonds, a Treasury official said yesterday in an effort to tamp down ongoing concerns.

The Government Finance Officers Association approved policy statements Tuesday calling on the Governmental Accounting Standards Board not to move forward with its “fiscal sustainability” project and for the Securities and Exchange Commission to scrap plans to consider requiring floating net asset values for shares of money market funds.

Demand for federal high-speed rail funds has once again exceeded supply, as the Federal Railroad Administration confirmed this week that 23 states flooded it with a$137 million of applications for proposed projects.

ATLANTA — Government Finance Officers Association members are scheduled to vote this morning on a policy statement calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to maintain a stable, $1.00 net asset value per share of money market funds and to scrap plans to consider a floating NAV.

ATLANTA — A Treasury Department official Monday said that federal regulators already have attempted to assuage muni market participants’ worries about how to determine issue price for Build America Bonds in guidance issued in April, even though issuers continue to air concerns about the lack of guidance.

The global airline industry is expected to post a large profit this year and see a significant increase in passenger traffic, an airline trade group announced yesterday.

WASHINGTON — State and local groups are bringing their concerns to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s upcoming TIGER II grants — $600 million to be distributed to highways, bridges, transit, freight and passenger rail, and ports — with ports requesting at least one-quarter of the money.

WASHINGTON — With lawmakers from both chambers of Congress set to begin hammering out a single financial regulatory reform bill on Wednesday, one of the most contentious municipal-market issues to be worked out centers on who will regulate non-dealer financial advisers, swap advisers and other market intermediaries.

WASHINGTON — Despite their expectations that the worst could be over for state finances, three groups warned yesterday that budget gaps, revenue shortfalls, and spending constraints are likely to continue this fiscal year and next.

WASHINGTON — Internal Revenue Service officials Thursday said that there are no plans to audit up to half of all Build America Bond deals, backing away from remarks they made last week.

WASHINGTON — Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett warned a panel investigating the causes of the financial crisis Wednesday that states and localities may face “terrible” financial distress in the next five to 10 years that in turn could lead some to look to the federal government for bailouts.

WASHINGTON — A consulting firm has warned the Treasury Department that interim guidance it released in March might force small school districts to obtain Cusip numbers for their tax-credit bonds even if the issuer has no intention of ever stripping the tax credit from the bonds and selling it separately.

WASHINGTON — Municipal issuers and their bond lawyers last week were scheduling meetings to discuss whether the Internal Revenue Service’s compliance push on Build America Bonds will deter them from issuing the bonds in the future or force them to change the offering documents to protect themselves in case the IRS audits the bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service closed an audit of $61.3 million of revenue bonds issued in 2005 by the Coastal Bend Health Facilities Development Corp. of Corpus Christi, Tex., and has determined the debt can remain tax-exempt.