News and Information from Bond Buyer

Mich. Gov. Rick Snyder has appointed two separate teams to examine the finances of both the City of Highland Park and the Royal Oak Township.

Mich. Gov. Rick Snyder has appointed two separate teams to examine the finances of the City of Highland Park and the Royal Oak Township.

A House committee chairman made clear at a hearing on Monday that it may take Congress years to determine whether to amend a nearly 100-year-old law to allow the District of Columbia to raise the heights of some buildings to accommodate increased growth and obtain more tax revenue.

With the market focused on Illinois ahead of a Tuesday vote on a pension system fix, the state has announced plans to take competitive bids on $350 million of taxable general obligation bonds next week to meet ongoing capital funding needs.

Dallas Independent School District will issue $143 million of qualified school construction notes this week with proceeds earmarked for expansion and maintenance projects throughout the state's second-largest school district.

Pennsylvania's new transportation funding law is a credit positive for the state and several authorities, Moody's Investors Service said.

A four-person team of experienced professionals will help lead the American Association of Airport Executives.

The Internal Revenue Service has chosen to audit $65 million of general obligation, limited tax, school improvement bonds issued by the Washoe County, Nev. School District in 2007.

Three former bankers at GE Funding Capital Market Services, Inc., convicted of fraud and conspiracy for rigging municipal bond investment bids are out of prison following a Nov. 26 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturning their guilty verdicts.

The municipal market is struggling to tread water Monday as light new-issue volume battles against fading Treasury yields to provide direction.

Tax-exempt money market funds had $1.08 billion in outflows, reducing total net assets to $262.74 billion in the week ended Nov. 25, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Today, MFT spotlights Amy Pitter, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. She is responsible for overseeing nearly 2,000 DOR employees in offices across the Bay State who work in tax administration, child support enforcement and local services for cities and towns.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday it will sell $45 billion of four-week discount bills Tuesday.

Yields in the municipal market have started Monday somewhat weaker as they search for traction.

Beth Bye will succeed Toni Harp as Senate chair of the appropriations committee, Senate President Donald Williams announced.

CEO-to-worker pay ratio is important to New York City pension funds, the city comptroller said in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Today, MFT spotlights Amy Pitter, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. She is responsible for overseeing nearly 2,000 DOR employees in offices across the Bay State who work in tax administration, child support enforcement and local services for cities and towns. Prior to her commissioner appointment in October 2011, Pitter served with the DOR from 1991 to 2000 as Deputy Commissioner of Taxpayer Services and Deputy Commissioner of Child Support Enforcement. In 2000, Commissioner Pitter left DOR for CGI, an independent information technology and business process services firm, where she consulted with agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Australian Tax Office on large systems implementations, strategic planning initiatives and program design with an emphasis on customer relationship management and taxpayer education and outreach.

Construction spending rose 0.8% in October following a 0.3% drop in September, with a sharp rise in public construction offsetting declines in private building, data released by the Commerce Department Monday morning showed.

The overall economy grew for the fifty-fourth straight time, while the manufacturing sector expanded for the sixth consecutive month, the Institute for Supply Management reported Monday.

Edna Love’s 58 years as a nurse for Detroit’s health department earned her a $2,000-a-month pension when she retired in 2011, Bloomberg news reports. That pales next to the $1 million she got from a separate city-sponsored savings plan where she put 5 percent of her pay year after year.