Ted Phillips

New York was expected to end calendar 2009 with a negative general fund balance that could be as high as $600 million, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said on New Year’s Eve.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed two deficit-reduction bills last week and submitted legislation to expend her authority to cut spending.

Standard & Poor's revised Newport Hospital's outlook to negative from stable last week, citing an unexpected increase in operating losses. The change affects $24.9 million of bonds issued in 1999 by the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp. on behalf of the hospital. Standard & Poor's rates the debt A.

Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority's revenue bonds and dedicated tax-fund bonds to negative from stable last week.

When federal stimulus money runs out after 2010, New York school districts could face a $2 billion funding gap, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said last week.

The Brooklyn Arena Development Corp. on Wednesday closed on the sale of $511 million of tax-exempt bonds to partially finance the controversial $1.06 billion Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

NEW YORK - The Brooklyn Arena Development Corp. on Wednesday closed on the sale of $511 million of tax-exempt bonds to partially finance the controversial $1.06 billion Barclays Arena in Brooklyn.

New York Gov. David Paterson doesn't want to cut capital spending, but delaying projects may be inevitable, he said in an exclusive interview with The Bond Buyer.

Calling last week's $511 million bond deal to finance the Atlantic Yards basketball arena in Brooklyn "murky," a New York lawmaker said the deal should be halted.

The New York Liberty Development Corp. plans to begin marketing $2.59 billion of escrow bonds tomorrow to meet a year-end deadline to sell Liberty bonds for redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority did not violate New York laws when it agreed to sell the development rights over rail yards in Brooklyn to Forest City Ratner Cos., a state Supreme Court judge ruled last week.

Natural gas drilling in upstate New York could force New York City to build a multibillion-dollar water filtration plant, substantially raising water rates in the city, says a report released last week by the city's Independent Budget Office.

New York Gov. David Paterson's order to withhold $582 million of payments from school districts was unconstitutional, plaintiffs charged in a lawsuit filed in State Supreme Court in Albany yesterday.

In a reprise of last year, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday passed a "doomsday" budget that slashes services, but on a delayed schedule.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans major service cuts next year to deal with revenue shortfalls in the current month and beyond, the agency announced yesterday.

New York municipalities are pooling their bond issuance to take advantage of “super BABs” this week in what is expected to be the first of up to five deals.

Providence would get a $76 million streetcar system to meet the city’s growing transit needs under recommendations in a report that was released by the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority last week.

Gov. Donald Carcieri last week appointed Ioanna Morfessis as executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp., subject to state Senate approval.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell last week announced the state had identified buildings and parcels of land to be sold to raise money under its enacted budget.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey passed an austere $6.3 billion operating and capital budget yesterday that keeps operating growth at zero in 2010. The agency also cut its 2007-2016 capital plan by $5 billion to $24.5 billion.