GFOA

Issuer groups urged a Senate Panel to undo a 2014 SEC rule change that required money market funds to use a floating net asset value.

With the need for Congressional action lessened, governors and state legislatures can focus on fine tuning their own laws, officials said.

The Government Finance Officers Association said Tuesday it generally supports most of the recommendations an SEC panel plans to discuss in Atlanta later this week.

The MSRB's controversial commentary about selective disclosure got some support from a top SEC official on Wednesday.

Muni market groups got a long-awaited win when the House passed banking legislation classifying certain munis as high-quality liquid assets, even if it wasn't as big a win as hoped.

Local, county and state officials said they took initial steps Wednesday in what will become a much larger contingent of elected officials who will jawbone their federal counterparts with testimonials about the cost savings attributable to advance refundings.

A deal struck between House and Senate leaders could lead to a vote as soon as next week on a banking bill that would classify munis as high-quality liquid assets and make them more attractive investments for banks.

The Government Finance Officers Association's new president does not see its top goals changing this year.

April was a pretty good month for the municipal bond market following the 30% drop in first quarter issuance, said a market expert.

Many lawmakers in Congress have deferred to the high court on the issue in the belief that helping state and local governments collect sales tax for e-commerce might be construed as a new tax rather than an enforcement measure.

The expected GFOA guidance will come as governmental units prepare to meet a Jan. 1, 2020 deadline set by the Government Accounting Standards Board for treating all leases as financings for the right to use an underlying asset.

Build America Mutual's Les Richmond said that state and local governments might want to consider their disclosure obligations in the light of the more robust risk assessments they'll soon begin getting from their actuaries.

Reinstatement of advance refundings could be packaged with infrastructure legislation because many state and local governments have used the savings to finance new infrastructure.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's newest model documents incorporate months of experience with the year-old issue price regulations, which most issuers think are working well.

Issuers and the MSRB are mostly on the same page about primary offering practices that may warrant scrutiny, but some members of the GFOA's debt committee are concerned about "regulatory creep."

The case involves as much as $100 billion in state and local sales tax revenue over the next decade, according the e-commerce retailers that are defendants in the lawsuit.

Muni issuance will pick up next year, said George Friedlander, managing partner of Court Street Research Group.

The MSRB said the paper was prompted in part by the tax law's prohibition on advance refundings and the fact that interest rate swap rules intersect with the board's rules for municipal advisors.

Some states don't remit all of the sales tax funds that are due to local governments from e-commerce retailers.

A sweeping bank regulatory bill under debate in the Senate is very close to achieving something the muni market has been fighting for since 2014: the inclusion of municipal bonds as high-quality liquid assets.