Yvette Shields

CHICAGO — With Kansas City, Mo., set to exhaust its voter-approved general obligation bonding authority with an issue next month, Mayor Sly James is hoping to win City Council and voter support for as much as $1 billion of new authority for infrastructure improvements over the next decade.

CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's finance team will introduce to the City Council this week an ordinance seeking approval to refund up to $1.75 billion of O'Hare International Airport general airport revenue bonds and passenger facility charge bonds for savings.

CHICAGO — Chicago-based Loop Capital Markets LLC has opened a public finance office in Little Rock, Ark., the first in a series of new regions it hopes to establish a presence in this year as it extends its reach from major metropolitan areas to smaller urban markets.

CHICAGO — Missouri transportation officials are seeking legislative authority to turn Interstate 70 into a toll road to fund a $2 billion to $4 billion rebuilding and expansion of the aging highway, possibly through a pubic-private partnership.

Nearly nine months after a devastating tornado wrecked its high school and destroyed or damaged nine other facilities, the Joplin School District in Missouri voted this week to ask voters for $62 million of borrowing authority to cover its share of a $185 million rebuilding program.

The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission last week submitted to the St. Louis Rams a $124 million renovation plan for the Edward Jones Dome with $60 million of public funding.

Moody’s Investors Service has stripped Le Center, Minn., of its investment-grade rating and warned of further negative action due to the city’s reliance on cash-flow borrowing to cover a February debt-service payment and its inability to repay a loan that came due in December.

Local governments in Minnesota had $410 million of outstanding general obligation bond debt in 2010 related to tax-increment financing districts, according to a new analysis compiled by state auditor Rebecca Otto’s office.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced last week the nomination of local public finance banker Martin Cabrera Jr. to serve as chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission.

Milwaukee County Supervisor Johnny L. Thomas Jr. has suspended his campaign for Milwaukee city comptroller after criminal charges were filed against him for accepting a bribe during a sting operation in exchange for advancing a financial advisory contract.

Grigsby & Associates Inc. owner Calvin Grigsby said he will vigorously fight accusations leveled by the Illinois secretary of state that he failed to properly supervise a former banker in the firm's Chicago office who advised the Illinois Student Assistance Commission to invest in a bank that later failed.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn called for legislative action this year on pension and Medicaid reforms to stabilize the state's fiscal house but offered few details on how to accomplish that goal in his state of the state address.

Dubuque will issue $4.4 million of general obligation urban-renewal bonds and $7.5 million of GOs as soon as next week.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week announced a second series of tax-increment financing reforms aimed at improving the program’s transparency and accountability.

A fiscal meltdown awaits Illinois in the coming years as its bill backlog rises from $9.2 billion this year to $34.8 billion in fiscal 2017 unless state lawmakers take action to rein in growing pension and Medicaid costs, a government research organization warned Monday.

CHICAGO — A former Grigsby & Associates Inc. public finance banker must pay a $15,000 fine for his role in advising the Illinois Student Assistance Commission to invest in a Chicago bank that later failed.

Moody's Investors Service assigned an A1 rating to the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago's possible $151 million private placement of unsecured senior notes to repay loans and fund construction projects.

CHICAGO — With the prospect of a recall election ahead of him, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker sought to highlight the state's improved fiscal condition after a tumultuous first year in office.

CHICAGO — The combined burden of unfunded local and state pension liabilities on Chicago taxpayers rose to $103 billion in fiscal 2010 from just $19 billion a decade ago as double-digit investment returns in 2010 failed to stave off further deterioration of funded ratios, according to recent analysis of pension figures.

The Fox Valley Technical College will seek approval on the April 3 ballot for $66.5 million of new borrowing to finance capital projects.