Yvette Shields

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Wednesday investment banker Steven Koch will replace departing deputy mayor Mark Angelson - who focused on economic, business, and budget issues - next month.

Chicago heads into next year's budget season with $369 million of red ink to erase, a figure down by half from what Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his finance team faced as they crafted their inaugural budget last year.

Incumbent Gov. Scott Walker and Republican groups spent $58.7 million on the historic recall election in June while his Democratic challenger Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Democratic groups spent $22 million.

The Milwaukee County Board has approved an increase in the $3 passenger facility charge at Mitchell International Airport to $4.50.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded its underlying rating on Illinois' Douglas and Champaign Counties Community Unit School District 301 two notches to Baa1 and assigned a negative outlook. The action affects $5.4 million of debt.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare's rating one level to BBB-plus and warned of impending further negative action by placing it on rating watch negative, due to the Illinois hospital's financial performance.

Illinois Gov. Quinn on Monday called a special legislative session for mid-August, pressing lawmakers to act on elusive pension reforms needed to help stave off further credit deterioration and spare schools, healthcare, and public safety spending from further cuts.

The trustee for $39 million of appropriation revenue bonds issued for a failed artificial sweetener plant in Moberly Missouri has decided to give up on efforts to sell the half built plant to a new developer and now intends to auction off the project's assets this fall.

Moody's Investors Service raised its rating one notch to A2 on $160 million of Alexian Brothers Health System's still outstanding after its acquisition by Ascension Health Alliance.

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board approved a pool of 10 law firms to work on its bond sales as it embarks on a 15-year $12 billion capital program.

Minnesota enters the market next week with a small, but rare, revenue issue for refunding savings and plans to return on Aug. 8 with $658 million of new-money general obligation bonds. Both are competitive issues.

The Joplin School District borrows $35 million Tuesday to kick into high gear its rebuilding effort following last year's devastating tornado.

Struggling to repay $113 million in debt that financed its privately-owned and operated airport in Missouri's Ozark Mountains, Branson Airport LLC has won a reprieve against enforcement actions from bondholders in the form of an extended forbearance agreement.

The St. Paul, Minn. City Council advanced plans to provide a $17 million subsidy for a new St. Paul Saints ballpark.

Illinois collected about $576 million more in fiscal 2012 than earlier predicted, the Illinois Commission on Forecasting and Accountability reported in its review of fiscal year-end results.

Moody's Investors Service said this week Chrysler's improved performance and production at its Belvidere plant in the Rockford, Ill., metropolitan region is a credit positive for the area.

Moody's knocked $6.5 billion of Chicago O'Hare international Airport general airport revenue bonds down one notch due to the airport's high leverage, narrow financial margins, and economic and construction risks tied to its ongoing $8 billion expansion.

The Chicago region could unsnarl its traffic mess and generate $2 billion in economic activity by 2040 by undertaking 11 major road construction projects with a $52 billion price tag paid for with new toll and user fees, according to a report from the California think tank the Reason Foundation.

Wisconsin posted a help wanted notice this week: Director, Capital Finance Office as the longtime standard bearer of the state's debt management -- Frank Hoadley -- prepares to retire.

The former - and first - head of the Illinois Finance Authority Ali Ata received probation from a federal judge this week for his role in a state public corruption scandal that eventually landed former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in prison.