Southeast

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into an $83.3 million bond deal that Miami-Dade County sold last year on behalf of the county’s financially ailing Public Health Trust.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Atlanta City Council on Monday formally adopted a five-year budget stabilization planning process to eliminate deficits in certain funds, examine options to reduce unfunded pension benefits, and fix aging infrastructure with planned long-term bond issues.

Louisiana disclosed this week that it has been providing information to the Internal Revenue Service for the last 13 months as part of an ongoing audit of $650 million of general obligation refunding bonds it sold in 2005.

DALLAS — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal plans to close a $366 million budget gap over the next 10 weeks with funds earmarked for resolving a dispute with the federal government and money from a settlement with a pharmaceutical company.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Kentucky ended its annual legislative session Thursday night without passing a budget for the biennium, which begins July 1. The state is facing a $1.5 billion shortfall over the next two years.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday chopped the underlying rating on Orlando, Fla.’s contract tourist development tax bonds to junk, to levels below where other rating agencies recently have cut the credit.

DALLAS — The Louisiana State Bond Commission has temporarily postponed refunding $500 million of outstanding state general obligation bonds until the Internal Revenue Service completes a routine audit of some of the issues.

DALLAS — Louisiana lawmakers and Gov. Bobby Jindal must fill a $319 million revenue gap in the fiscal 2010 budget in less than three months following the latest revision in expected revenues.

BRADENTON, Fla. — State officials this week gave the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund Finance Corp. the go-ahead to sell up to $710 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds for storm-related losses that occurred in 2005.

WASHINGTON — Davenport & Co. has hired two financial advisers for a new Charlotte office to bolster its services in the Southeast, the firm announced this week.