Washington

A federal ruling against states may set a precedent for risky local spending on broadband, credit analysts said.

The total amount of outstanding municipal securities and loans in the market rose 0.6% to $3.65 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year, as U.S. bank muni holdings increased 2.5% and mutual fund muni holdings rose to a record high $658 billion.

Lawyers, issuer officials, and others consulted about the fund agreed that the three firms did nothing against the rules when they gave the money to the fund, which is governed by a board independent of the city leadership and which does nothing to politically support Garcetti or any other political interest.

Securities and Exchange Commission member Daniel Gallagher is calling for Congress to mandate that municipal issuers use Government Accounting Standards Board benchmarks, possibly as a condition for the bonds to be tax-exempt.

The Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission is selling $158 million of power refunding bonds tied to the controversial Prairie State coal plant, which recently won a round of fresh praise from ratings analysts.

Many bond lawyers feel that with all municipal rating agencies soon to be beaming live ratings to EMMA, the Securities and Exchange Commission should amend its rules so that issuers no longer have to worry about filing notices of upgrades and downgrades.

The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it will indefinitely suspend sales of state and local government securities beginning at noon on March 13 because of the federal debt limit.

Bond Dealers of America has tapped Steve Genyk, a managing director and the head of fixed income capital markets at Janney Montgomery Scott, as the new chairman of its board for fiscal 2015, which started March 1.

Bond lawyers are warning their issuer clients that they are operating at their own peril if they do not spend their bond proceeds in a timely fashion, since Internal Revenue Service agents in audits are raising concerns about proceeds that are spent late or not spent at all.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division is contacting dealers who reported their own possible violations of securities laws under a voluntary enforcement program initiated last year, giving them two weeks to decide if they still want to take advantage of the lenient settlement terms.