Yvette Shields

Legislation advancing in the Wisconsin Legislature would authorize the creation of a Milwaukee County comptroller, an independent elected post charged with managing the county’s debt, audits and other fiscal issues.

Moody’s Investors Service has revised its outlook to positive from stable on Minnesota’s HealthPartners Inc.’s A3 rating in recognition of its improved operating performance.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week announced agreements with two McCormick Place Convention Center labor unions, solidifying reforms enacted last year.

After conducting a national search, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week named former chief operating officer and interim superintendent Michael Kelly as the superintendent of the Chicago Park District.

CHICAGO - The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is losing its two board members with public finance backgrounds — including William Morris, who opposed a planned rate hike — just as the agency prepares to embark on a $12 billion capital program that relies on $4.8 billion in borrowing.

CHICAGO - Illinois lawmakers return Tuesday for their annual veto session facing a crowded agenda topped by a revamped gambling expansion bill, budget changes, pension reforms and ongoing talks over whether the state should borrow to pay down its bills.

CHICAGO - The Chicago Transit Authority heads to market as soon as Wednesday with $456 million of sales tax revenue bonds and as much as $96 million of new-money and refunding capital grant-backed bonds to fund the purchase of rail cars.

CHICAGO - Chicago hosted potential buyers of its bonds and other financial and municipal market participants Thursday at a first-time city-sponsored conference aimed at bolstering its strained fiscal standing with investors.

CHICAGO - Thomson Reuters will use revised criteria next year to distinguish short-term cash-flow transactions from long-term issues in its municipal league tables amid complaints that a broker-dealer influenced its senior manager rankings by offering issuers lower rates to push out maturities on short-term deals.

CHICAGO - Illinois will test for a range of investor appetites with its competitive sale of $300 million of sales-tax backed bonds on Tuesday by offering to accept both tax-exempt and taxable bids on the issue.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party announced last week that the recall effort against Republican Gov. Scott Walker will launch on Nov. 15.

Moody’s Investors Service affirmed Hazelden Foundation’s A3 rating ahead of its upcoming $20 million sale of fixed-rate debt to finance various projects that will raise the prominent Minnesota-based treatment center’s debt load by 70%.

Standard & Poor’s has revised its outlook on Rush University Medical Center Obligated Group’s underlying A-minus rating to positive in recognition of its operating performance and a reduction in construction risks as it nears completion on a new patient tower.

CHICAGO - Warning he would veto the current version of a gambling expansion bill, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn Monday handed lawmakers an alternative plan that scales back the number of new gaming sites, imposes state regulatory control over a new Chicago casino, and sweetens fiscal benefits for the state.

CHICAGO - With its coffers bolstered by an income tax increase, Illinois has whittled down its backlog of bills to $3.8 billion from $5.5 billion at this time last year, but Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka warned in her quarterly report that "staggering fiscal challenges remain."

CHICAGO - The Minnesota Vikings-backed proposal to build a $1.1 billion publicly subsidized stadium in Ramsey County relies on an overly ambitious schedule, leaves the county on the hook for potential cost overruns, and could impair its ability to finance other public projects, according to a state-commissioned report.

CHICAGO - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveiled a $6.3 billion 2012 budget Wednesday that whittles away a $635 million deficit with new revenue from a series of increases in fees, fines and taxes not including property or sales taxes, along with debt refunding savings, management reforms, and spending and job cuts.

CHICAGO - The Illinois secretary of state has temporarily suspended former Grigsby & Associates Inc. public finance banker Alvin J. Boutte Jr.'s license, accusing him of providing misleading advice to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission in its $12.8 million investment in a failed Chicago bank.

CHICAGO - The Illinois Finance Authority board Tuesday advanced borrowing plans for several retirement communities and authorized up to $480 million in bonds for the University of Chicago to refund debt and fund projects, including a new research center for its molecular engineering program and astronomy and astrophysics work.

The Kansas City Council last week asked a Jackson County Circuit Court judge to support its bid to block Clay Chastain’s $2.5 billion light-rail ballot initiative.