Southeast

A federal judge in Birmingham Monday delayed the sentencing of Montgomery bond dealer William Blount and Alabama lobbyist Albert LaPierre. Both men pleaded guilty last year to pay-to-play charges related to Jefferson County’s troubled sewer debt and were scheduled to be sentenced today.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Standard & Poor’s yesterday affirmed its A-minus rating, with a stable outlook, on the Prichard Waterworks and Sewer Board in Alabama.

More than $1 billion of bond-financed projects planned by Virginia could be delayed as the state’s new governor confronts billion-dollar deficits for fiscal 2010 and 2011.

DALLAS — Louisiana state agencies have proposed $248 million of budget cuts for the remainder of fiscal 2010 as called for by Gov. Bobby Jindal as revenues continue to drop.

WASHINGTON ­— The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday charged a Houston-based broker with engaging in unauthorized and unsuitable trading on behalf of two Florida municipalities, putting them at risk of losing millions of dollars while reaping more than $14 million in commissions.

The consolidated Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County is reviewing a finance plan to build a new $585 million convention center. But the idea is controversial because most of the debt for the project would be backed by a general fund pledge of non-ad valorem revenue.

Henrico County last week sold Virginia's first recovery zone economic development bonds in a $9.8 million deal.

South Carolina's budget and control board voted Tuesday to cut the budget by 5%, or about $238 million, the second round of spending cuts this fiscal year.

The preliminary report from the Commission on Streamlining Government appointed by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal includes more than $1 billion in potential budget cuts. The total of the 236 proposed cuts is more than the $802 million in reduced spending sought by Jindal.

Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday downgraded DeKalb County's $471 million of outstanding general obligation unlimited-tax backed and parity debt, issued through various public authorities, to Aa1 from Aaa.