Yvette Shields

The Illinois Senate president called on Gov. Bruce Rauner to offer a new, balanced budget for fiscal 2016, warning that, without action, the state’s battered credit faces a further hit.

Illinois debt manager Jessica Akey is leaving state government to join Standard & Poor’s, multiple public finance sources said.

A federal appellate panel tossed five of 18 corruption-related counts that landed former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich a 14-year sentence in 2011.

The Illinois Finance Authority is rolling out a new financing program to help smaller hospitals purchase equipment and meet federal healthcare record-keeping mandates.

Standard & Poor's says Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota could win an upgrade if its operations remain on the upswing.

Moody’s Investors Service has raised Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services’ rating by one level to A2 ahead of its upcoming revenue bond sale for $120 million.

Swap termination fees are among the items to be financed under a $1.16 billion general obligation bond authorization that is up for a Chicago Board of Education vote.

Steep junk-level yield penalties drew strong interest in Chicago's $347 tax-exempt sale Thursday which followed the city's pricing of $743 million of taxable securities a day earlier.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel rolled out a new leadership team for the fiscally beleaguered Chicago Public Schools that will be led by his recently appointed chief of staff, Forrest Claypool.

lllinois' Senate Democrats pushed through a one-month $2.26 billion budget and overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoes on $2.3 billion of spending in their fiscal 2016 budget.

Morgan Stanley on Wednesday priced Chicago's $746 million of taxable general obligation securities with the deal's long bond paying a yield 485 basis points over the 30-year U.S. Treasury rate.

Chicago shouldn't expect much of a break for resolving its credit deterioration-driven liquidity crisis when it sells $1.1 billion of tax-exempt and taxable bonds this week, as investors await a resolution on more daunting pension funding and budgetary ills.

One day after signing into law a new, two-year $72.7 billion state budget, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Monday formally launched his bid for the Republican nod in the 2016 presidential contest.

Chicago Public Schools is banking on $500 million in state pension help to avoid deeper cost cuts and more borrowing in fiscal 2016, officials said Monday as they released neighborhood school budgets.

Chicago Public Schools and its teachers’ fund have ended negotiations over the district’s request to defer $500 million of its fiscal 2016 contribution, the two announced in a joint statement.

Most local governments in Missouri face new restrictions on the use of municipal court fines to prop up their budgetary operations, under legislation signed by Gov. Jay Nixon.

Chicago's top lawyer and attorneys for unions and pension fund members laid out their arguments before the court Thursday.

With no end to a budget stalemate in sight, Illinois House Democrats pushed through a $2.3 billion one-month spending plan Thursday after adding a provision that would allow the state to meet its payroll for the next 30 days.

An Illinois judge will rule July 24 on whether Chicago’s 2014 overhaul of its laborers and municipal funds pass state constitutional muster. Either way, the case will land on the Illinois Supreme Court’s docket.

Chicago intends to bring nearly $1.1 billion of general obligation bonds to market next week in a deal that allows it to discard remaining general fund liquidity risks tied to its credit deterioration by jettisoning expenses on to its long-term debt load.