Yvette Shields

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton on Thursday offered a revised two-year budget proposal that drops changes to broaden the state's sales tax, but leaves intact a proposed income tax increase.

After returning its balance sheet to the black, the Illinois International Port District plans to bolster its role in economic development and job creation by turning to private managers to raise the needed capital.

Six weeks after pulling its last bond sale, Illinois plans a full court press with investors and will drop a bidding feature that had dampened the interest of some broker-dealers as it prepares to competitively sell $800 million of debt.

The Chicago City Council will take up ordinances as soon as Wednesday authorizing up to $1.65 billion of O'Hare International Airport debt that will raise new money for the airport's $8 billion expansion.

Moody's Investors Service lowered Rhinelander, Wis.'s rating by three notches to A3 from Aa3 due to ongoing strains to its balance sheet.

Le Center, Minn.'s rating sunk further into junk bond territory following a downgrade Monday by Moody's Investors Service over is fiscal woes.

Rank and file Chicago Police Sergeants Association members rejected a proposed contract that included pension reforms billed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a potential framework to help solve the city's pension crisis.

Illinois has settled securities fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading investors about its approach to funding its pension obligations.

With its credit and reputation damaged, Lombard, Ill. plans to shift gears and become a buyer of municipal securities to help finance capital projects.

Kansas City, Mo. officials hope to quickly resolve a lawsuit filed by several business owners challenging the legality of the funding mechanism for the city's proposed $102 million downtown streetcar project.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn chided state lawmakers Wednesday for failing to tackle pension reform as he unveiled a $35.6 billion general fund budget for fiscal 2014.

Moody's Investors Service stripped the long struggling East St. Louis school district which is under state oversight of its investment grade rating.

A judge last week agreed to allow a lawsuit to proceed that challenges Chicago's 99-year, $563 million lease of four downtown parking garages to a private consortium.

PNC Capital Markets LLC hired Chicago-based public finance banker Elizabeth Gallagher Coolidge from Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. LLC to bolster its efforts in key Midwestern states.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday vetoed a 2011 gambling expansion bill for lacking sufficient regulatory oversight and he warned that more revenue from additional gaming won't solve the state's pension crisis.

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board has approved refunding up to $1 billion of debt in a deal led by Goldman Sachs and Jefferies & Co. and assigned Morgan Stanley the lead spot on a future new-money deal that may tap the TIFIA program.

Minnesota's economic forecast brightened Thursday with new revenue projections adding $295 million to its surplus this year and chopping $463 million off the $1.1 billion deficit in its next budget.

A bipartisan group of Illinois lawmakers put their support Wednesday behind a new pension reform package that cuts benefits, raises employee contributions, and reduces the state's burden for funding future teachers' pensions.

The Chicago Transit Authority has tapped its CFO Karen Walker to lead the agency's public-private partnership efforts and has hired Ronald DeNard from the private sector to fill the CFO spot.

Standard & Poor's dropped its rating Tuesday on Vadnais Heights to D on $25 million of lease-backed revenue debt issued in 2010 to finance a sports complex that it cut financial support to last year.