Washington

Warning the Internal Revenue Service that its proposed issue price rules would disrupt the muni bond marketplace, increase regulatory complexity, and drive up compliance and borrowing costs, Bond Dealers of America is proposing that the agency instead make modest changes to its current rules and then enforce them.

Average gasoline consumption falls to a 30-year low, threatening revenues from the main source of state and federal transportation funding.

House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan is working on a "limited tax reform" package that could contain revenue for the Highway Trust Fund and extenders and that could be passed this summer.

An Internal Revenue Service memorandum that would render a community development district's bonds taxable should not be retroactive because a House committee last year urged guidance on political subdivisions be prospective, the CDD's lawyer said.

Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service have assigned their highest ratings to Seattle's unlimited and second-highest ratings to its limited tax general obligation bonds ahead of a more than $350 million competitive sale next week.

A second federal lawsuit has been filed challenging the private activity bond financing for the All Aboard Florida train project; the latest suit comes from Martin County, Fla.

Millions of jobs and billions of dollars in state road and transit projects are at risk unless a multiyear federal transportation bill is in place by the end of May, Senate Finance Committee Democrats warned on Tuesday.

U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli has until May 20 to respond to a request from Miami, Fla.'s former budget director that the Supreme Court hear his argument that he should be shielded from a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit.

A $967 million federal loan for commuter rail safety technology represents "a very favorable position for the MTA," said finance manager Patrick McCoy.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan wants major cost reductions in Purple Line P3 rail proposal or he'll kill the project.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposal to require dealers to submit new information through its trade reporting system has some support from the two major industry groups, but one is concerned about possible inefficiency and confusion and the other wants a longer implementation period.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials stand behind their disclosure after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened an informal inquiry into the district’s compliance with legal guidelines in the use of bond proceeds to buy iPad tablets.

The House on Thursday passed a bill to make the state and local sales tax deduction permanent.

Market participants are concerned and confused about an aspect of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed municipal advisor core conduct rule that some sources are reading as allowing investment banks to provide advisory services on deals they underwrite.

A $15.1 billion, 16-year transportation package proposed by Washington State House Democrats includes more than $8 billion of new projects to be funded with an increase in the state gasoline tax and up to $4.3 billion of state general obligation bonds.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a proposed rule governing the core conduct of municipal advisors, including their fiduciary duty to put the interests of state and local government clients ahead of their own.

Tax reform proposals to curb tax exemption for municipal securities would create uncertainty in the market, possibly lead to higher borrowing costs, and hurt infrastructure development, issuer and borrower groups warned a Senate Finance Committee working group this week.

Municipalities are getting themselves into trouble by borrowing to cover operating deficits, Federal Reserve Bank of New York president and chief executive officer William Dudley told attendees at a closed-doors workshop Tuesday.

The new Florida Development Finance Corp. board on Tuesday delayed reconfirming the agency's decision to be the conduit for $1.75 billion in private activity bonds for the All Aboard Florida train project.