News and Information from Bond Buyer

Week Of July 28 Issuer St Description Amount

MASSACHUSETTS

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Government

Moody's Investors Service has assigned a Baa2 rating to Rockland County's (NY) $41 million General Obligation (Serial) Bonds, 2014 Series C. Concurrently, Moody's upgrades to Baa2 from Baa3 the rating on $368 million of GO debt outstanding; the outlook is positive. The bonds are secured by the county's general obligation pledge as limited by the Property Tax Cap Act (Chapter 97 (Part A) of the Laws of the State of New York, 2011. Proceeds of the bonds will be used for various capital projects throughout the county.

Projected higher tax revenues and pension savings may narrow New York City's outyear budget gaps, according to city Comptroller Scott Stringer.

New York's MTA proposed a $14.2 billion fiscal 2015 budget and four-year financial plan that assumes an average annual increase of $260 million to labor costs stemming from two settlements.

Illinois issuance coming to market this week will be able to shake off Standard & Poor’s lowering the outlook on the state’s A-minus rating to negative last week, according to market participants.

Using bond proceeds to construct a university athletic facility at a revised location will not cause the bonds to fail to meet public notice and approval requirements, the Internal Revenue Service ruled.

A Georgia judge validated $397 million of municipal bonds for the Atlanta Braves, but officials say the deal likely faces an appeal.

The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority is playing up the rare tax-exemption from state income taxes and sturdy repayment protections offered by its $285 million refunding that’s linked to the troubled state credit through an appropriation pledge.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities is hiring two new attorney advisers in the latest expansion of the team tasked with providing muni market expertise to federal regulators.

Costs of complying with environmental regulations could increase for California's hydroelectric-reliant public utilities as the state's severe drought pushes them toward more generation sources with higher greenhouse gas emissions, according to Fitch Ratings.

Trains are now carrying passengers on the first segment of Washington rail system extension funded with $3 billion of federal loans and toll revenue bonds.

Cronyism and “endemic” conflicts of interest make the pension fund of Greater Boston transit employees a cautionary tale, said a report by Pioneer Institute.

The Treasury Department Tuesday auctioned $29 billion of two-year notes with a 1/2% coupon at a 0.544% yield, a price of 99.912595.

The market is quiet on Monday as investors prepare themselves for a bombardment of economic data scheduled to come out this week.

The finance committee of New York's MTA approved a motion to issue special obligation taxable refunding bonds that would fully pay defeased bonds at their early redemption rate and could save the authority $32 million.

With no debt on its books, Salt Lake City International Airport has broken ground on a $1.8 billion redevelopment that will not require a bond issue until 2016 at the earliest, officials said.

Tender rates for the Treasury Department’s latest 91-day and 182-day discount bills were mixed, as the three-months incurred a 0.030% high rate, up from 0.025% the prior week, and the six-months incurred a 0.055% high rate, unchanged from 0.055% the week before.