Washington

WASHINGTON — A lawmaker and a Treasury Department official Thursday pushed for a permanent extension of the Build America Bond program, but acknowledged that the greatest obstacle is finding a way to pay for it.

WASHINGTON — Infrastructure in the U.S., especially for water systems and surface transportation, is desperately in need of investment, the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young declared this week. Their report criticized governments from the local to federal levels for their sluggish movement toward transportation and infrastructure financing reform.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ron Wyden, who recently caused a stir in the municipal bond market by proposing a tax-reform bill that would eliminate tax-exempt bonds and replace them with tax-credit bonds, said yesterday he is open to discussing possible modifications to the legislation with critics.

A group of state insurance regulators is beginning to provide substitute credit ratings for municipal bonds held by insurance companies and is pitching the ratings to financial advisers and other market participants as a way to improve the marketability of issuers’ bonds to these companies.

Innovative financing tools for transportation projects — including an array of different types of bonds — should be expanded and grouped into a centralized department at the federal level, state and local officials told House panel members yesterday.

WASHINGTON — At least six state securities regulators are considering enforcement action against banks and broker-dealers that have failed to commit their “best efforts” to restore liquidity to institutional investors in auction-rate securities, according to David Massey, North Carolina’s deputy securities ­administrator.

WASHINGTON — Build America Bond transaction participants are debating whether they need to do more to track BAB prices to avoid running afoul of statutory premium restrictions and jeopardizing the issuer’s subsidy payments or to respond to an Internal Revenue Service compliance check.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Washington Legislature rebalanced the state’s 2009-11 biennial budget Monday night, closing a $2.8 billion gap with the help of almost $750 million in new taxes.

WASHINGTON — Amtrak wants to become a major player in creating a national high-speed rail network, as states continue to jockey for funding from the federal government and potentially offer up their own bonds to help cover construction costs.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined D.A. Davidson & Co. $375,000 for failing to protect confidential customer information that hackers stole from its computer systems in late 2007, but credited the firm for its response to customers after it learned of the breach and for cooperating with criminal law enforcement agencies.

Maryland lawmakers continued negotiations on fiscal 2011 budget bills Thursday as local bond-financed projects, which some members consider earmarks, became a point of contention.

WASHINGTON — The National Association of Bond Lawyers is urging federal regulators to put a notice on EMMA alerting investors that rating information in offering and continuing disclosure documents may not be accurate as credit rating agencies recalibrate the ratings for tens of thousands of municipal bonds.

WASHINGTON — A coalition of 27 transportation, labor, and other groups are urging lawmakers drafting climate and energy legislation that could impose a carbon tax on gasoline to ensure any resulting tax revenue would be funneled into the highway trust fund instead of other programs.

WASHINGTON — The mayor of Tucson has urged the Treasury Department to revise its criteria for determining what areas can use recovery zone bond financing, complaining that the current allocation method overlooks his city even though it has one of the highest unemployment rates in Arizona.

The Retama Development Corp. has agreed to pay the Internal Revenue Service an unspecified amount and convert $30.425 million of tax-exempt bonds into taxable debt to ensure $160.3 million of bonds it issued in 1993 and 1997 will remain tax-exempt.

Americans, even in rural areas, overwhelmingly favor expanding public transportation such as rail or bus transit rather than highway construction, which traditionally has received much more funding, according to a recent national poll.

WASHINGTON — State and local governments will save $12.3 billion on the $90 billion of Build America Bonds issued so far compared with traditional tax-exempt debt, the Treasury Department said in a recent report touting the success of the program.

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia’s convention center hotel project, which has been delayed for years, may finally be getting closer to financing, with a possible $250 million bond sale later this spring following a favorable court ruling last week, district officials said.

WASHINGTON — A group of California cities and localities are urging a federal judge in Manhattan not to dismiss the 13 cases they brought against Wells Fargo & Co. and 44 other banks, broker-dealers and investment brokers, charging they conspired to rig bids and fix prices of guaranteed investment and derivatives contracts in the muni market.

In a rare move for a lawmaker, House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank announced Thursday that he has prohibited his staff from having any contact with a former aide who joined a company that operates derivatives exchanges after playing a key role in writing last year’s derivatives legislation.