Yvette Shields

Chicago Public Schools closed on $325 million of short-term borrowing earlier this month and plans a $150 million draw next month from new credit lines to manage its precarious liquidity.

Northwestern Memorial Healthcare and University of Chicago Medical Center are planning deals totaling about $425 million following Illinois Finance Authority approval.

While the Chicago and Illinois credits both remain tainted by their pension and budget ills, their paths have diverged and Chicago is looking better, Nuveen Asset Management says in a new report.

The Chicago City Council signed off Wednesday on up to $3.5 billion of O’Hare International Airport borrowing and a new water/sewer tax to help rescue the city’s largest pension fund from looming insolvency.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic returns to the market Wednesday to take advantage of low interest rates to shed some of its floating-rate exposure.

Underwriters, advisors, and lawyers working on Chicago’s bond deals must come to City Council finance committee meetings prepared to take the “hot seat” and defend their firms’ ethnic, racial, and gender diversity.

St. Louis-based Stifel Financial Corp. reached into Indiana for its latest acquisition, City Financial Corp. in a deal that bolsters Stifel’s already strong public finance foothold in the Midwest and further cements its evolution into a national player in public finance.

The Chicago City Council will vote Wednesday on $3.5 billion of airport borrowing.

Chicago's plan to rescue its largest pension fund with the help of a new water and sewer tax cleared a City Council committee despite complaints about the tax’s impact and concerns it doesn’t fully solve the fund’s crisis.

Veteran Chicago-based public finance tax specialist Scott Bremer has joined The Hardwick Law Firm LLC, a hire the minority-owned hopes will bolster its market position in Illinois and beyond.

DuPage County, Illinois lost a triple-A rating because of its limited revenue flexibility and growth prospects that are now given greater weight under revised rating criteria.

Wisconsin’s bigger municipalities are faring better fiscally than their smaller neighbors, says a report from the League of Wisconsin Municipalities and Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

CHICAGO – Illinois' largest retirement fund voted to lower its assumed investment return rate to 7% from 7.5%, a move that Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration had warned would have a "devastating" impact on funding for social services and education.

Illinois’ budget crisis and political gridlock have taken a toll on the state’s public colleges and universities, S&P Global Ratings said in a report recapping the credit erosion and warning of a tough road ahead for the schools.

The Illinois Finance Authority heads into the market Tuesday with $500 million of top-rated state revolving fund bonds to pave the way for more low cost loans for local clean water and drinking water projects.

Illinois achieved about $56 million in present value savings on the refunding portion of its nearly $550 high-grade, sales tax backed deal that sold competitively Thursday.

The junk-rated Chicago Board of Education authorized up to $1.5 billion in short-term and $945 million of long-term borrowing and signed off on a $5.4 billion budget despite warnings that the plan relies on precarious assumptions.

Illinois’ largest retirement fund will review its assumed investment rate Friday amid a warning from Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration that lowering it from 7.5% could have a “devastating” impact on funding for social services and education.

Chicago-based Cabrera Capital Markets again has bankers on the ground on both coasts with the hiring of Brian Corley out west and Bonwick Capital Markets’ municipal banking managers out east.

Chicago Public Schools is seeking a $400 million increase to its short term borrowing capacity to help manage its strained liquidity.