Yvette Shields

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.

Illinois' move to raise new revenue through an income-tax hike last year could not stave off a downgrade Friday by Moody's Investors Service, which cited the state's failure to address its massive unfunded pension obligations and chronic bill-payment delays.

The Chicago suburb of Lombard paid a steep price in the form of a six-notch downgrade after it refused to dip into its own coffers to cover a $912,000 debt-service shortfall on hotel and conference center debt that carries village support.

Illinois' move to raise new revenue through an income-tax hike last year could not stave off a downgrade Friday by Moody's Investors Service, which cited the state's failure to address its massive unfunded pension obligations and chronic bill-payment delays.

The Lombard Public Facilities Corp. in Illinois drew $1.5 million from reserves to cover debt-service payments owed this month on nearly $190 million of revenue bonds issued in 2005 to finance construction of a hotel and conference center in the village.

Louisville, Ky.-based Hilliard Lyons has hired Chicago-based banker Alexander Rorke to lead an expansion of its public finance banking business across the firm's 13-state footprint.