Caitlin Devitt

Nebraska lawmakers are eliminating a new tax on phone sales that Lincoln levied last year to help lower its deficit.

Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh and president pro tempore Gary Brown said they plan to meet with Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder this week to dissuade him from enacting major cuts in local aid from the state.

Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb last week unveiled a plan to lease 41 failing public schools — about a quarter of its schools — to private charter school operators.

CHICAGO — The Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System, a small A-plus-rated provider in southern Illinois, began planning a $45 million bond issue early last fall. But after months of watching interest rates climb in the public market, the hospital decided to privately place the debt with a bank.

CHICAGO — Michigan is set to enact a controversial law that expands state power over fiscally stressed local governments and gives emergency managers broader authority, including the ability to terminate labor contracts.

CHICAGO — Indianapolis will head to market next week with $98 million of debt that taps the Midwestern disaster-area bond program to finance a new private development to benefit Eli Lilly and Co. — a project officials say will transform the city’s central downtown business district.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded $3.3 million of unlimited-tax general obligation bonds issued by Claymont City School District to A-plus from AA-minus and revised the outlook to negative from stable.

Cleveland Clinic chief executive officer and president Toby Cosgrove predicted the federal health care law would cost the prestigious facility $174 million in annual revenue beginning in 2015.

Detroit Public Schools last week launched a series of public tours and community meetings to showcase how it’s spending proceeds of a $500 million bond-funded capital improvement plan.

Officials from Porter County said they will consider filing a new lawsuit with the Indiana Supreme Court after the state Court of Appeals last week declared the county could not withdraw from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

CHICAGO — Faced with the headline risk associated with ongoing reports over its fiscal struggles, Detroit Public Schools was forced to pay a steep premium Thursday on its sale of $231 million of short-term notes.

CHICAGO — Nebraska would issue up to $500 million of bonds backed by a slice of its sales tax under a bill likely to be debated by the Legislature in the next two weeks.

CHICAGO — Bondholders owed more than $50 million by an Indiana hospital in receivership would receive a mere $3 million or less under a proposed sale of the facility’s most valuable assets.

CHICAGO — A survey that included more than half of Michigan’s counties show they are struggling with unfunded other post-employment benefit liabilities of $3 billion.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson last week proposed a $512 million fiscal 2012 budget that allows the city to avoid layoffs and service cuts if unions agree to new contracts.

The Cincinnati City Council was poised to vote Tuesday on a number of changes to the city’s $2.1 billion pension system in an effort to tackle an estimated $1 billion shortfall.

Revised revenue projections show Nebraska is expected to collect $44.5 million more than expected over the next two years — dollars that lawmakers will use to help offset a $986 million shortfall in the upcoming two-year budget.

Cook County has a new $3.1 billion 2012 budget that relies on 10 furlough days to avoid substantial layoffs and rolls back an unpopular sales-tax increase starting next year. The budget balances a record $487 million shortfall.

After winning long-awaited approval from a bond insurer, Detroit Public Schools plans to enter the market Thursday with $231 million of one-year notes urgently needed to make payroll through August.

CHICAGO — Former Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce has joined Rice Financial Products Co. to staff the firm's Columbus office.