Public finance

Leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee have established a special bipartisan panel to promote the use of public-private partnerships across all modes of transportation, economic development, public buildings and water infrastructure

Senate Banking Committee chairman warns that Congress must act to protect the main source of federal transportation funding before it dries up.

Tax-exempt money market funds lost nearly half of the robust inflows they accumulated last week, as $2.47 billion of outflows marred the second week of 2014 and reduced total net assets to $272.24 billion in the week ended Jan. 13, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Despite the volatility and uncertainty that saturated the tax-exempt market in 2013, municipal bonds are in high demand at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. due to their attractive risk to reward and overall safety, according to senior vice president B. Craig Elder.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has reportedly asked lawmakers to come up with $350 million to match private foundations' commitment to support Detroit's pension funds and art collection.

FLORIDA

ALABAMA

The nation's governors support maintaining the tax exemption for municipal bonds, though tax reform appears to be unlikely this year, leaders of the National Governors Association said Wednesday.

A state court ruling stopping California from selling $8 billion of bonds for high-speed rail could result in a cutoff of billion in federal matching funds as well.

Judge Steven Rhodes will rule Thursday afternoon on Detroit's interest-rate swap settlement in one of the most closely watched decisions of the city's historic bankruptcy case so far.

ARIZONA

ILLINOIS

House and Senate appropriators unveiled a $1.012 trillion bipartisan omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2014 late Monday that would provide funds for transportation and many other programs but not high speed rail.

Van Eck Global expanded its line of exchange-traded funds with the debut Tuesday of the Market Vectors Short High Yield Municipal Index ETF, its seventh municipal bond ETF and latest tool for cutting duration and increasing yield potential in a rising interest rate environment.

Standard & Poor's changed its outlook on California to positive from stable based on Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal for fiscal year 2015.

The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday said he expects to have a new funding law for highways, ports, bridges and transit in place before the current one expires on Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2014.

After a six-month delay to allow the market to digest Detroit's bankruptcy, Saginaw County, Mich. is bringing $52 million of pension obligation bonds to market Thursday.

ILLINOIS

MISSOURI

Steven Rhodes, judge in the Detroit bankruptcy case, will rule Thursday afternoon on whether to accept or reject the city's controversial settlement with its interest-rate swap counterparties.