Caitlin Devitt

CHICAGO — The directors of two of Indiana’s largest borrowers have left for new jobs.

CHICAGO — Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said he was “elated” by Friday’s announcement that a for-profit health care system is interested in buying the Detroit Medical Center — Michigan’s largest charity-care provider — and infusing $800 million into the center’s Detroit campus.

CHICAGO — Nonprofit health care providers continue to grapple with fallout from the collapse of the auction-rate market, and the sector now faces up to $31.5 billion of bank-credit-supported debt that needs to be renewed by 2013, according to a new report by BMO Capital Markets.

CHICAGO — The Indiana Finance Authority has advanced a pair of transactions that will launch the state’s first use of its $3.1 billion Midwestern disaster-area bond allocation to help redevelopment efforts following damaging storms two years ago.

CHICAGO — The Indiana General Assembly last weekend wrapped up its session with some major highlights, authorizing the privatization of two of the state's largest infrastructure projects and moving to preserve recent property tax caps by making them part of the state constitution.

Fitch Ratings this week revised its outlook to negative and affirmed its BBB-plus rating on general obligation debt issued by the Cleveland Municipal School District. The action affects $150.3 million of GOs issued in 2002 and 2004.

A Korean battery maker said it would build a $303 million plant to make electric car batteries in the town of Holland.

Officials at the Livonia Public Schools in Wayne County are considering privatizing the district's custodial staff, bus drivers, and food service workers in an effort to offset an expected deficit of nearly $15 million in this year's $140 million budget.

CHICAGO — The Ohio Building Authority today will price approximately $80 million of revenue bonds in a deal that includes traditional tax-exempt debt and taxable Build America Bonds.

CHICAGO — With a pledge by Michigan backing up the debt, below-investment-grade Detroit yesterday captured interest rates ranging from 2.47% to 5.375% on $250 million of distributable state aid limited-tax general obligation bonds.

CHICAGO — Moody’s Investors Service yesterday downgraded and assigned a negative outlook to all of Cleveland’s outstanding debt, warning that a weak economy continues to pressure the city’s fiscal position.

CHICAGO — Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard yesterday announced that, pending approval by the city and Indiana, the city would sell its water and sewer systems to a nonprofit group for $425 million and the assumption of $1.5 billion in outstanding debt.

CHICAGO — Indiana would be allowed to privatize two of the state’s largest proposed infrastructure projects under a measure on its way to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’ desk.

In his fifth annual state of the city address, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson touted several large development projects planned for downtown and said he would push Ohio to allow more cooperation among municipalities looking to partner on services and education.

The mayor of Pontiac, which is in its second year of state-controlled emergency financial management, said he might file a lawsuit challenging the authority of the city’s new financial manager, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Detroit could break ground on the first phase of a long-planned light-rail project along one of its main thoroughfares by the end of the year, Mayor Dave Bing said last week.

CHICAGO — Detroit will enter the market Thursday with $250 million of state aid limited-tax general obligation bonds that the city will use to erase a chunk of its accumulated deficit.

CHICAGO — Michigan would abolish its 10 bond-issuing authorities and consolidate them into the newly created Michigan Finance Authority under an executive order issued by Gov. Jennifer Granholm last week.

CHICAGO — Moody’s Investors Service Friday revised its outlook to negative from stable on Cincinnati’s general obligation debt as the city faces declining income tax revenue, which makes up nearly two-thirds of its general fund.

CHICAGO — As a first step in a three-state expansion, PNC Capital Markets Inc. has opened a Michigan office and hired Anton Colon to head it.