Washington

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.

A federal judge denied requests by two Florida counties seeking to block the issuance of $1.75 billion in private activity bonds for a private passenger train project.

The Long Beach Community College District in California has paid the Internal Revenue Service about $1.01 million to settle tax issues concerning its $48.37 million general obligation bond issue from 2008.

A Florida attorney who says his property will be devalued by a private passenger train wants to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging tax-exempt financing for the project.

California has improved its budget practices and Virginia has enacted pension reforms, but New Jersey has been unable to get past chronic pension and budget problems, a nonprofit group found in a report released Monday.

Moody's Investors Service downgrades to Ba2 from Baa3 $290 million Howard University revenue bonds, Series 2011 A and 2011 B issued by the District of Columbia.

A federal appeals court denied the appeals of a trio of convicted bid-riggers Thursday in a ruling that could have lasting effects for future fraudsters.

President Obama threatens to veto a House committee's fiscal 2016 transportation appropriations bill over low funding levels.

Municipal issuers spent $2,000 to $18,000 to do continuing disclosure reviews under the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative and the vast majority of them felt they were forced to do them, the Government Finance Officers Association said during a spirited panel discussion here Tuesday.

Dealer groups and banks remain highly concerned that the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed core municipal advisor rule could limit the services they offer, while non-dealer advisors told the Securities and Exchange Commission that the proposal needs more clarification in several ways.

The Government Finance Officers Association is trying to galvanize public officials to pressure federal banking regulators into more permissive rules classifying municipal securities as high-quality liquid assets under the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) rule adopted last year.

A long-term transportation bill offered by the Senate Finance Committee would be likely to include some new type of private-activity bond, a Government Finance Officers Association official said here.

Municipal issuers need to be prepared to fight against Securities and Exchange Commission efforts to directly regulate them, members of the Government Finance Officers Associations' Committee on Governmental Debt Management said Saturday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission should not approve the outline for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's Municipal Advisory Representative Qualification Examination because it takes an inappropriate "one-size-fits-all" approach, the Investment Company Institute told the commission in a comment letter.

The recent drought emergency declaration in Washington State provides a short-term credit positive development for the agricultural communities in the central and eastern portions of the state, Moody's Investors Service said.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found fault with Maryland's personal income tax collection scheme will cost localities in the state millions of dollars but may not impact their credit ratings, analysts and government officials said.

Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee have given their tax-reform working groups more time to do their work.