Washington

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to vote on proposed changes to its Rule 15c2-12 on disclosure at an open meeting Wednesday and also may direct staff to approve a related Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposal the same day.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to vote on proposed changes to its Rule 15c2-12 on municipal market disclosure at an open meeting May 26, according to a notice the SEC released Tuesday evening.

WASHINGTON — Maine is the first state or local government to obtain a credit opinion from the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s Securities Valuation Office for a new issue of municipal bonds.

WASHINGTON — The Senate yesterday voted down an amendment to financial regulatory reform legislation that would have imposed a blanket prohibition on federal assistance to states and localities in financial trouble for reasons other than a natural ­disaster.

The Securities and Exchange Commission should clarify the responsibilities of elected issuer officials who approve or authorize primary offering documents and secondary market disclosures, the National Association of Bond Lawyers said this week.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has closed its audit of $161.3 million of variable-rate demand student housing revenue bonds issued by the Payne County, Okla., Economic Development Authority in 2002 with no change to the tax-exempt status of the debt.

WASHINGTON — Moody’s Investors Service has hired Walter Winrow to head its infrastructure finance group, replacing Tom Keller, who is now a senior managing director at the rating agency.

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia tomorrow expects to issue $32.9 million of qualified school construction bonds, now that a new law allows states and localities to issue certain tax-credit bonds as taxable, direct-pay subsidy bonds.

WASHINGTON — As the Senate moves toward finishing consideration of financial regulatory reform legislation this week, state treasurers are making last-minute efforts to change some of the bill’s muni-related derivatives and rating provisions, though it’s unclear if they were making any headway with lawmakers.

Transportation stakeholders are opposed to a provision in a draft climate-change bill introduced in the Senate that would generate more revenue based on emissions from the sector than would be re-invested in infrastructure or transportation projects.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., yesterday named Lily Batchelder chief tax counsel of the Senate Finance Committee.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has filed an administrative complaint against David Lerner Associates Inc. and its head trader, William Mason, charging they excessively marked up some 1,538 municipal bond transactions over a two-year period.

A position the Internal Revenue Service is taking regarding $150 million of student-loan revenue bonds under audit could have ramifications for the entire tax-exempt student loan bond industry, market participants said last week.

A group of 11 California issuers are charging that an affiliate of Goldman Sachs & Co., J Aron & Co., is pressuring a member of the group to remove Goldman as a defendant in its civil suit charging that 36 Wall Street and other firms participated in a vast bid-rigging conspiracy for municipal swaps and investment agreements.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused the former manager of two Schroders Investment Management municipal bond mutual funds of tipping his family members about impending distress to the funds and urging them to sell their shares.

WASHINGTON — Reliance on volatile sources of tax revenue that swing in boom-and-bust cycles led to budget woes most states are currently facing, according to a new report published by the Tax Foundation.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission announced yesterday that it has promoted Gerald Hodgkins to become an associate director in its division of enforcement.

WASHINGTON — A bond provision in a recently unveiled climate change bill appears to be broader than intended and would allow electric cooperatives and potentially the federal government to serve as conduit borrowers on tax-exempt and Build America Bond deals.

WASHINGTON — State and local officials yesterday urged members of a House Ways and Means Committee panel to create and capitalize a national infrastructure bank, but neither they nor the lawmakers could agree on how to finance or structure the bank.

Two senators last night unveiled a bill that would make the $30 million small-issuer limit for bank-qualified bonds permanent and index it to ­inflation.