Bankruptcy

New Jersey and Atlantic City officials worked out a plan Tuesday to allow the state’s gambling center to spread out a $9.5 million budget deficit over five years as it prepares to issue nearly $36 million of refunding and new-money debt in the near term.

WASHINGTON — Market participants are sharply divided on the Municipal Securities ­Rulemaking Board’s draft proposal to prohibit dealers from underwriting new negotiated or competitive bond issues if they served as the issuer’s financial adviser on the transaction.

Rhode Island Superior Court will hold a hearing Tuesday regarding the constitutionality of the state’s appointment of a receiver to oversee Central Falls’ finances. Motions were filed Monday.

SAN FRANCISCO — National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. withdrew a motion Monday asking a federal bankruptcy court to allow California state payments to the bankrupt city of Vallejo to flow to bondholders instead.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The California Supreme Court upheld Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s employee furlough policy Monday.

Moody’s Investors Service placed under review for possible downgrade Monday a combined $86.4 million of Harrisburg Authority water bonds and Harrisburg Parking Authority revenue bonds because the city could enter Pennsylvania’s distressed communities program.

The Arkansas Board of Finance last week approved a new plan for investing the state’s allocation of tobacco settlement funds that could bring in an additional $1 million a year in interest.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced the members of its new, majority-public board Friday, hours after it proposed a series of large fee increases to defray the technology costs for its EMMA site as well as expenses tied to the regulation of municipal advisers under the Dodd-Frank Act.

As Harrisburg looks for assistance through Pennsylvania’s distressed communities program, the city also will seek a $7 million short-term loan to help meet payroll and other immediate costs.

The appointment of a receiver by Rhode Island for Central Falls has landed in court. A hearing is scheduled for Monday in state superior court.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A north Florida grand jury decided Wednesday not to pursue an investigation into the construction and furnishing of a $48 million appeals court building that was financed with $33.5 million of bonds.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch its new office of municipal securities by the end of October, chairman Mary Schapiro said in prepared testimony presented to the Senate Banking Committee Thursday.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — It has been more than six years since San Diego dropped its disclosure bombshell about failing to tell investors of the city’s pension ­underfunding.

Congress is expected to leave town either late Wednesday or early Thursday to campaign for the fall elections after approving stopgap spending legislation that would keep the federal government running in fiscal 2011, which starts on Oct. 1.

Political fighting in Harrisburg, Pa., scrapped Mayor Linda Thompson’s initiative to restructure debt of the region’s incinerator authority, meaning the city is no closer to resolving the problems that brought it to the verge of a general obligation default this month.

A group of MBIA Insurance Co. policyholders Tuesday filed a motion seeking to unseal more than 1,000 confidential documents relating to the New York Insurance Department’s approval of MBIA’s contentious 2009 restructuring.

SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for the city of Vallejo, Calif., said the National Federation of Municipal Analysts failed to back up “apocalyptical” predictions with any evidence in the city’s response to a brief the organization filed in its bankruptcy case.

Federal prosecutors filed a brief on Monday urging the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to uphold former Jefferson County Commission president Larry Langford’s conviction.

A federal bankruptcy judge on Monday reaffirmed a recent ruling that the city of Prichard does not qualify under Alabama law to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. The judge said state law requires a local government to have outstanding debt to file for bankruptcy.

Regulators’ heightened concern for retail investors in the muni market was on display Tuesday when a top Financial Industry Regulatory Authority official posed an alarming scenario to industry representatives in New York.