News and Information from Bond Buyer

The San Diego City Council Infrastructure Committee approved $121 million in lease revenue bonds bond for street repairs, public safety building improvements, and a variety of other projects.

Standard & Poor's has upgraded Sausalito, Calif.'s general obligation bond rating two notches based on its recently released new local GO criteria.

Collaboration after Hurricane Sandy should serve as a model for government at all levels, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on the one-year anniversary of the killer storm.

The Treasury Department auctioned $35 billion of five-year notes, with a 1 1/4% coupon, a 1.300% high yield, a price of 99.758710.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday that City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana will keep his job as the city's top budget advisor.

The Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois wants the state to expand its borrowing powers and reduce those of the Chicago Transit Authority, which disagrees.

The growth in healthcare jobs is slowing down – a worrying trend that could potentially put further pressure on state and local government budgets in the years ahead, according to a new report from Moody’s Investors Service. The declining pace of job growth marks a credit negative for local governments which count on the healthcare sector to be the foundation of their economic growth.

The network of muni credit professionals in Philadelphia has spawned a local analyst group that will launch next month with a Logan Square reception.

The Treasury Department Tuesday auctioned $45 billion of four-week bills at a 0.055% high yield, a price of 99.995569.

The municipal bond market turned its attention to the week's largest deals pricing in the primary market, as issuers looked to take advantage of a six-day rally in bond prices.

Texas service sector activity slowed again in October, according to business executives responding to the Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey, as the revenue index slid to 5.3 from 8.9.

The consumer confidence index decreased to 71.2 in October from a revised 80.2 last month, The Conference Board reported Tuesday.

Business inventories rose 0.3% to $1.668 trillion in August, while sales increased 0.3% to $1.298 trillion, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The Nassau County legislature voted to adopt a 2014 budget with an 8.1% structural deficit Monday afternoon.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a group of City Council members last week advanced plans for the new City Council Office of Financial Analysis to provide the council with independent analysis.

Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka launched a new database to make local governments' financial information and records more easily accessible to the public.

The states which saw the worst home-price declines and unemployment during the Great Recession are speeding up their spending of federal government aid, according to the Treasury Department.Under a three-year-old program designed to help their residents,18 states and the District of Columbia have spent about $1.7 billion of the $7.6 billion total money available in the “Hardest Hit Fund,” Bloomberg news reports. Last year at this time, the states had spent only $511 million of the money, which is part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Philadelphia Treasurer Nancy Winkler is the 2013 recipient of the Freda Johnson Award for Trailblazing Women in Public Finance. She will receive the award from the Northeast Women in Public Finance at The Bond Buyer’s Deal of the Year Awards Dinner in Manhattan on Dec. 5. Winkler is being recognized for her accomplishments both in the public sector today, as well as in her earlier career at Public Financial Management, which she joined in 1982 and helped grow into the nation’s largest municipal advisory firm.

The September U.S. retail sales data were weak and set up a government-damaged Q4 for additional slowing, while September producer price data showed little change overall as falling food costs offset higher auto pricing.

September PPI was reported down 0.1% and core PPI rose 0.1% (0.0539% unrounded). These produced a 0.3% gain overall and a 1.2% increase in core rates over the year -- modest inflation indicators.