Caitlin Devitt

The state team reviewing Detroit’s finances has asked for and received a 30-day extension.

CHICAGO — Michigan lawmakers were scrambling Thursday to craft and pass a bill that would keep open a troubled suburban Detroit school district, while on a separate front the state battled with local school officials over the appointment of an emergency manager.

Weeks of intense negotiations with Detroit's 48 unions could be for nought as the tentative contracts don't generate enough savings to stave off a state takeover or prevent the city from going broke by April, according to a new fiscal analysis.

Ohio will price two bond deals Wednesday and return to market next week with $118 million of capital appropriation bonds.

Critics of Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman’s tax plan said last week the proposal would lead to a $660 million shortfall in the upcoming two-year budget cycle.

Fitch Ratings last week downgraded Lincoln Park School District’s underlying rating to BBB-plus from A and revised its outlook to negative from stable.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed $48.2 billion fiscal 2013 budget, unveiled last week, is a credit positive for local governments and school districts, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

As Michigan officials near their deadline for deciding the future of Detroit, a new report suggests that one of the more dramatic options on the table — a Chapter 9 bankruptcy — doesn't offer a panacea to the city's deep-seated financial problems.

CHICAGO — Ohio's universities and community colleges have asked the state to approve $350 million for new capital projects.

CHICAGO — The Summit County Port Authority, one of six port authorities in Ohio, plans to significantly ramp up its bond financings to spur economic development across the northeast region of the state.

CHICAGO – School districts across Ohio, which have already suffered widespread downgrades during the last two years, will continue to face fiscal and rating pressures over the next few years, Fitch Ratings warns in a new report.

Moody’s Investors Service placed the A1-rated Omaha Metropolitan Utility District on review for possible downgrade after years of thin debt-service coverage.

Detroit’s Cobo Center, where the North American International Auto Show is held, more than doubled its revenue in the last year, according to the agency that runs it.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced Friday that the city had reached a tentative agreement with its police unions, the latest in a series of labor deals as officials scramble to avoid a state takeover.

The Indiana Senate and the House have both passed separate measures that would eliminate or significantly reduce the state’s inheritance tax, which generates roughly $150 million annually.

With tobacco consumption continuing to decline, Fitch Ratings last week downgraded $9 billion of tobacco bonds issued by Ohio and California after the two states were forced to draw on reserves to make their Dec. 1 payments.

CHICAGO — The market for privately placed municipal debt came out of the shadows in 2011.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder unveiled a $48.2 billion fiscal 2013 budget that he said reflects the state's improving fiscal position, boosting spending for education and roads and making a deposit into the state's anemic rainy-day fund.

Troubled Michigan school districts may find more affordable market access under legislation signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder that insulates certain types of bonds from the effects of bankruptcy.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich defended his push to privatize the Ohio Turnpike and called for the proposal's critics to "chill out" during his annual state of the state address Tuesday afternoon.