Washington

The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce wants a $600 million increase in annual transportation funding.

Most states will be able to issue more private-activity bonds in 2016.

Infrastructure funding and municipal revenue could be on the chopping block when Washington state lawmakers convene.

New tolled express lane west of Denver is meeting early expectations for congestion relief within the I-70 corridor.

"I think it is a concern of many of [GFOA's] members that the MCDC initiative will be used to generate a large number of instances of issuer violations of the continuing disclosure agreements and obligations … and that the violations will be grouped and presented to Congress and SEC commissioners as the basis for organizing some kind of one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme to impose further regulation on issuers," said Dustin McDonald, GFOA federal liaison center director.

Municipal market groups are ready to band together in 2016 to show the Securities and Exchange Commission that they can improve disclosure practices without increased regulation, even as the commission is set to continue publishing settlements with underwriters and issuers who have failed to comply with their continuing disclosure obligations.

Congress will not act on comprehensive tax reform next year, but House Republicans could try to move forward with international or corporate tax reform, according to tax experts.

"Our biggest issue is the issue price rules," Michael Decker, a managing director and co-head of municipal securities for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, said when asked about the tax arena.

The biggest tax regulatory issue for municipal market participants in 2016 are the issue price rules and what changes the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service will make as they finalize them, dealer and issuer group representatives said in interviews about the coming year.

Washington State Treasurer James McIntire surprised insiders with his decision to not seek re-election after two terms in a position that includes oversight of state bond sales.

The pipeline for municipal market enforcement cases is very full for 2016, said LeeAnn Gaunt, director of the SEC enforcement division's municipal securities and public pensions unit. "We're really operating on all cylinders."

Municipal market participants will once again see an active year for enforcement in 2016 as the Securities and Exchange Commission's self-reporting initiative largely wraps up and the enforcement division mixes a continued focus on pricing and market structure actions with potential new areas for enforcement like municipal advisors and bank loans.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's core conduct rule for municipal advisors, despite its controversial ban on principal transactions.

The gasoline tax and other dedicated taxes and fees provide about 70% of the funding in the new five-year, $305 billion FAST Act, but that level of support will drop to about 50% when the measure expires in October 2020, said Peter Nonis, senior manager for federal relations at the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The search for a robust revenue source to supplement or even replace the federal gasoline tax will pick up speed in 2016.

The new five-year federal transportation funding law has opportunities as well as some limits for P3 project financing.

A provision in the new transportation funding law that lifts the ban on using tax-exempt bonds in conjunction with federal loans will result in lower borrowing costs for water utilities, Fitch Ratings said on Thursday.

The Port of Seattle Commission has approved a $408.4 million budget for 2016 that includes extensive infrastructure investments as part of a more than $2 billion capital improvement plan.

Credit agencies say the new $305 billion FAST Act funding law is credit positive for state road and transit debt secured by federal transportation grants.

The Internal Revenue Service told Woodland Hills School District in Allegheny County, Pa. that bonds it issued in 2005 and advance refunded in 2013 may violate tax requirements and be taxable.