Washington

Senators are optimistic about passage next week of a multiyear transportation funding reauthorization measure.

The Port of Seattle is set to sell nearly $600 million of bonds next week to refund outstanding debt and to finance new projects at the city's airport and other facilities.

The House on Wednesday voted 312 to 119 to approve a bill that would extend federal transportation funding through Dec. 18, with an $8.1 billion transfer from general funds to the Highway Trust Fund.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined three firms a total of $57,500 for municipal bond trade reporting violations. The self-regulator also suspended a former broker-dealer cashier for six months for fictitious trades.

Washington State's budget boosted education spending, a positive development for school districts and public universities, Moody's Investors Service said.

Providence Health & Services received a Fitch Ratings affirmation at AA ahead of plans to price two series totaling $356 million.

Gas prices fell in four of the six states with gasoline tax increases taking effect July 1, survey finds.

John Hoeven, a Republican Senator and former governor of North Dakota, is keeping states' needs in mind with his bill to create Move America Bonds.

The District of Columbia and several authorities serving the Washington metropolitan area will host a conference for institutional investors in September, city officials said Monday.

Virginia will recoup $149 million of the more than $280 million the state spent on a cancelled $1.4 billion toll road P3.

Washington State's compromise 16-year, $16 billion transportation plan includes gasoline tax increase and $5.3 billion of state GO bonds.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has signed a state budget into law, avoiding a government shutdown and appropriating money to pay the state's bond debts.

Gasoline taxes go up July 1 in six states to fund local highway projects while federal gasoline tax remains at 1993 level.

Reps. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., and Richard Neal, D- Mass., have introduced legislation that would increase the number of projects that could be financed by qualified small issue manufacturing bonds.

States are making plans for another short-term extension or a possible cutoff of federal transportation funding on July 31.

The Senate Finance Committee's tax reform working groups will not be submitting reports to the committee's leaders by the end of the month, as had been expected.

The Government Finance Officers Association is calling for changes in the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's core conduct rule for municipal advisors to reduce the costs and burdens for issuers.

Municipal securities dealers are worried that their participation in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative could cause them problems with multiple regulators, and have asked the SEC for reassurance that their businesses will not be impeded because they chose to report under the MCDC.

This week to see first House and Senate committee hearings in five years on sustainable options for the Highway Trust Fund.

Sponsors say a newly introduced measure to slash the federal gasoline tax would give the states flexibility in transportation funding.