Yvette Shields

The Chicago City Council signed off on a $2.45 billion borrowing package that was temporarily trimmed by $800 million due to council members’ questions over capital projects and the administration’s swap termination plans.

Pricing results on Chicago’s $500 million general obligation refunding and restructuring bond pricing Monday showed narrower spread penalties for the first such deal from the city since a large property tax increase.

The Chicago City Council votes as soon as Wednesday on more than $2.6 billion of bonding after a day-long finance hearing in which aldermen forced Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration to downsize a GO bond request.

Weaker results in the current fiscal year prompted one rating agency to shift its outlook on Michigan-based Trinity Health Credit Group's high-grade rating to negative ahead of its sale of $568 million of new-money and refunding bonds.

The lack of supply to meet demand – especially for yield – is seen as benefitting Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, and Illinois when all three fiscally distressed credits land in the bond market during the next two weeks.

Standard & Poor’s bumped Memorial Group Inc. out of junk territory thanks to support provided by the stronger rated BJC Healthcare system.

Illinois’ not-for-profit hospitals are facing new uncertainty over their local tax exemptions and charity care obligations after an appellate court voided a 2012 law governing their community benefit requirements.

Chicago’s public finance community was stunned to learn of the sudden death over the holidays of veteran municipal market professional Adrienne J. Archia. She was 53.

Illinois political dysfunction that’s driven a more than six-month-old fiscal 2016 budget stalemate won’t alone drive a downgrade, Standard & Poor’s says in a new report.

Chicago will offer its long planned $500 million general obligation refunding next week with plans for another $3.6 billion of new money, refunding, and restructuring GO and revenue-backed borrowing in its 2016 pipeline.

Illinois’ first bond offering statement in 20 months lays out a trove of warnings about the state’s stressed fiscal condition, from failed pension reforms and budget gridlock to its weakened credit and negative swap valuations.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s task force on local government consolidation and unfunded mandates offered 27 recommendations to streamline government operations.

The Great Lakes Water Authority officially opened its doors Jan. 1, ushering in a new era of regional water management under an entity that is now the caretaker of more than $5 billion in Detroit water and sewer bonds.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said if legislation subjecting local mayors to recall elections passes, he would sign it.

Missouri officials are waiting for the National Football League to decide if the St. Louis Rams can relocate despite a $1 billion stadium financing package designed to keep the team from leaving.

Standard & Poor’s is warning Chicago that analysts are watching to see how the city copes with a potentially bigger pension payment should its push for state relief falter.

The Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois kicks off the New Year with a rare new money borrowing as it looks to avoid state-related credit fallout.

With a fresh default on debt service looming, Lombard, Ill., wants bondholders to buy into a proposed restructuring of its $190 million of hotel/conference center debt.

Moody's Investors Service has placed the ratings of eleven local government credits in Indiana and Ohio on review with the rating direction uncertain as analysts await updated financial data from the group.

Standard & Poor's dropped Michigan Public Power Agency's AMP Fremont Energy Center project revenue bonds one notch to BBB due to the weakened operations of some cities that participate in the project.