Yvette Shields

Junk-rated Chicago Public Schools is using risky assumptions in its efforts to erase a $1 billion deficit, S&P Global Ratings said as it extended its CreditWatch on the district.

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport will get new gates and ultimately could see an aging terminal demolished and rebuilt to serve as a central hub under initiatives formally unveiled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel Friday.

Illinois will spend $2.5 billion more then it expects to collect in the coming months, putting it on course to end December with a bill backlog of $10 billion, the state comptroller warned.

The junk-rated Chicago school district plans to return to the municipal bond market to raise funds for needed capital work, the district’s leader said.

The private operator of partially bond-financed rail-freight transfer facility would provide most of the funding for a new toll bridge under a public-private agreement struck with Illinois.

The long-term principal and interest payment schedule for Chicago's general obligation debt swelled by about $1.7 billion last year, according to the city's comprehensive annual financial report.

Negotiations continue on a proposed restructuring of $190 million of debt Lombard, Illinois issued for a hotel and conference center, amid a fresh default.

A judge is expected to rule this month on Chicago's latest effort to quash a lawsuit filed by retired city employees who want to preserve their healthcare subsidies.

Chicago’s first mistake in its much-maligned parking meter lease was its choice of asset, says a new report that compares the city’s P3 deal to the Indiana Toll Road.

Southern Illinois University took a second rating hit over the strain of managing through the state’s prolonged budget gridlock.

CHICAGO – Illinois is asking underwriters vying for future senior manager work for advice on how best to capitalize on stopgap budget legislation that allows for the issuance of as much as $2 billion of refunding debt.

While Cook County, Ill. plots out its new money borrowing planned for later this year, finance officials will also work to close a looming $174 million gap.

Passage of a stopgap Illinois budget that keeps the spigot of aid at least partially flowing to the state's cash hungry public universities this year was overshadowed by fresh credit erosion.

The pleas from Illinois’ local governments, schools, and state agencies for at least a stop-gap spending plan are growing louder, as the state careens toward the start of a second fiscal year without a budget.

The Illinois Finance Authority greenlighted $1.4 billion of borrowing plans at its June meeting, led by Presence Health’s preliminary plans to restructure debt as it works to stave off further credit erosion.

Iowa will return to the market twice this month after a six-year absence to snag refunding savings.

Cook County, even paying the yield penalty most Illinois issuers face, landed $57 million in present value savings on a $285 million refunding in its first GO deal for more than two years..

The political and financial dysfunction of Illinois cost the state $12 million on Thursday’s $550 million bond pricing compared to its previous sale in January, according to a report from the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

Illinois paid a steeper penalty to borrow Thursday after a fresh round of downgrades but a municipal market offering historically low yields helped disguise the spreads.

Kevyn Orr, who put Detroit into bankruptcy, said Chapter 9 is an option Chicago should have on the table as it steers its way through financial problems.