Yvette Shields

Minnesota’s not-for-profit hospitals provided 27% more charity care in 2010 than in 2009, according to the community benefits report released last week by the Minnesota Hospital Association.

Illinois legislative leaders last week completed their appointments to a special pension reform panel convened by Gov. Pat Quinn.

CHICAGO — Fitch Ratings hit St. Louis' public transit agency with a downgrade late last week as it continues to work on details of a debt restructuring and reduction plan planned for next year that would bolster its long-term fiscal health.

CHICAGO — Missouri, a rare issuer, will enter the market with two refundings totaling $500 million later this year to generate both ongoing present-value savings and up-front savings that are built into Gov. Jay Nixon's proposed $23 billion fiscal 2013 budget.

The investor who holds $46 million of defaulted bonds issued by a Wisconsin tribe is taking aim at the financial and legal firms on the deal, accusing underwriter Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and bond counsel Godfrey & Kahn SC of misrepresenting the bonds' validity.

CHICAGO – Even with added revenue from last year's income tax hike, Illinois entered the new year with an estimated $8.5 billion in unpaid bills and pending Medicaid vouchers, employee health insurance payments, and other obligations.

CHICAGO — After more than a year of waiting out the market, Wisconsin's largest health care provider, Aurora Health Care Inc., this week will complete refunding plans put on hold amid rising rates in 2010 with the sale of nearly $400 million of fixed-and floating-rate bonds.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton proposed $775 million of general obligation borrowing to support a $1.5 billion capital plan with an emphasis on projects that spur economic development and improve public safety while creating more than 20,000 jobs.

CHICAGO — Organizers of the move to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker filed more than one million signatures by the Tuesday deadline in their effort to force a special election for the first-term Republican governor.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton last week announced the creation of an advisory task force charged with coming up with ideas to raise revenue for road, highway and bridge projects.

Former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has joined BNY Mellon’s wealth management business in the newly created role of senior adviser for strategic relationships.

CHICAGO — The trustee on $113 million of bonds that financed construction of the privately owned Branson, Mo., Airport opted not to nearly drain remaining reserves to make a Jan. 1 debt-service payment as airport operators struggle to bolster operations and stave off future bondholder enforcement actions.

CHICAGO – Illinois nonprofit hospitals say they provided $4.6 billion in charity care and community benefits in 2010, a number that has risen 26% in five years and is at the center of a debate that could lead to a legislative mandate on uncompensated services hospitals must provide to retain their tax-exempt perks.

Bolstered by a rally in Treasuries that extended to municipals, Illinois captured its lowest true-interest cost on a tax-exempt bond sale in more than three decades, even with the stigma of being Moody's Investors Services' lowest-rated state.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority board advanced plans Tuesday for the use of up to $75 million of Midwestern Disaster Area Bonds to help finance a $95 million retail, hotel and office complex on a brownfields site adjacent to the Great Lakes Naval Station north of Chicago.

Longtime Milwaukee Comptroller W. Martin "Wally" Morics retired late last year, handing the reins of the office that manages the city's debt issuance to his longtime deputy Michael Daun until voters elect a new comptroller this April.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton set a deadline of Thursday for Minneapolis and Ramsey County to submit proposals for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium that rely on a mix of local, state and team financing.

With one of its two hub airlines in bankruptcy, Chicago officials breathed a bit easier last month when Moody’s Investors Service affirmed its ratings on Chicago O’Hare International Airport’s $5.6 billion of general airport revenue debt.

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Lake County Community College District 532’s rating to Aaa from Aa1.

Faced with the headwinds of negative credit action, Illinois is hoping to see demand from investors whose state paper holdings were paid off over the last year and recognize the state's fiscal strides as its offers $800 million of general obligation bonds on Wednesday.