Washington

U.S. transit operators say reliable, dedicated funding is needed to resolve growing maintenance problems.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has filed a complaint against Phoenix-based Lawson Financial Corp. and the firm's president and chief executive officer, charging them with securities fraud in connection with the sale of millions of dollars of municipal revenue bonds to customers.

House members, government officials, and stakeholders all say the newest version of a bill to help Puerto Rico is a step forward, but their support for the measure seems tepid at best.

A House committee has passed legislation that would block the District of Columbia from having budget autonomy and the ability to spend its local tax dollars without congressional approval.

Both 10-year transportation funding plans proposed by Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton include $2 billion of road bonds.

Despite House Republican threats of criminal prosecution, the District of Columbia Council will hold the first of two votes Tuesday that would give the district budget autonomy and the ability to spend its local tax and fee revenues without annual congressional appropriation.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, a subsidiary of Bank of America, was ordered to pay $422,708 in fines and restitution by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for charging customers excessive markups and markdowns on municipal securities.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton will propose a compromise transportation funding bill to resolve a legislative deadlock.

The next president and new Congress have an opportunity to reverse the ongoing decline in the nation's aging infrastructure.

Facing new federal constraints on tax-exempt debt for projects with a private revenue stream, El Paso County, Texas, refunded tax-exempts with taxable bonds and still achieved interest rate savings.

The Indianapolis Airport Authority said this week that it has agreed to settle a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over rebate liability in connection with $347 million of tax-exempt bonds, even though it disagrees with the IRS' position on the bonds.

A California authority and a high school district said this week that they are prepared to file a protest and appeal of an expected Internal Revenue Service proposed adverse determination that $25.4 million of tax-exempt variable rate demand bonds are taxable.

With the House Natural Resources Committee planning to release a new Puerto Rico bill on Wednesday and vote on it a week later, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew traveled to the commonwealth to hold meetings to drum up support for a legislative solution.

Colorado Senate has approved a $3.5 billion road note package that could go to voters in November.

Municipal industry experts on Thursday urged analysts to continue focusing on how the presence of statutory liens can change the treatment of debt in bankruptcy proceedings and ratings analyses.

The par amount and number of municipal securities trades rose in the first quarter of this year, compared to both the previous and same quarters last year, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board statistics posted Thursday. But the number of continuing disclosure documents received dropped to 46,623 in the first quarter of this year from 47,934 during the same period last year.

A regulatory official and market participants sparred over the merits of the Securities and Exchange Commission's voluntary continuing disclosure enforcement initiative during a panel here on Wednesday while acknowledging the need to improve municipal disclosure.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said concern for the people of Puerto Rico is the primary reason he wants lawmakers to adopt restructuring legislation for the commonwealth.

Dustin McDonald, the current director of the Government Finance Officers Association’s federal liaison center, is leaving GFOA on Friday to lead the marijuana technology company Weedmaps’ government relations practice.

In a near unanimous vote, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday passed a bill that includes $1.4 billion in federal funding for Flint, Mich. as well as any other community facing a water crisis.