Yvette Shields

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.

The University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority hits the market Wednesday with a $263 million sale that will nearly double its modest debt levels to help finance a five-year $670 million capital program that includes a new off-campus facility.

The Illinois Finance Authority board advanced a handful of small direct or private placements for an array of not-for-profits.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office argued in state court that state constitutional protections against impairing retiree pensions don't extend to healthcare benefits.

Peabody Energy Corp., which led efforts to develop the mostly bond-financed, joint power agency-owned Prairie State Energy Campus, has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission on the coal-fired plant's development.

Illinois entered the New Year with a backlog of $9 billion in unpaid bills and the strain shows no sign of ebbing, according to reports published Monday.

Chicago received 16 responses in its first market outreach to identify prospective bidders in a possible deal to privatize Midway International Airport, according to the city's chief financial officer Lois Scott.

Mayo Clinic will return to the taxable market for the second time in six months as low rates coupled with freedom from tax-exempt compliance issues are proving too good of an incentive to resist.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker proposed a $68 billion two-year operating budget that cuts income taxes, bolsters transportation funding, and replenishes the state's exhausted authorization to refund general obligation debt.

A new Illinois pension reform proposal calls for making permanent Illinois' temporary income tax hike and directing those revenues along with higher employee contributions to stabilize the pension system.

The public agency that owns the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago unveiled plans with city and state officials Tuesday to build a new, 1200-room $400 million hotel to serve the convention center complex.