Yvette Shields

CHICAGO - Moody's Investors Service on Monday shifted its outlook to negative on Minnesota's Aa1 rating, punishing the state for political gridlock that drove lawmakers to erase more than half of a $5 billion budget deficit with one-time gimmicks that could worsen its structural imbalance.

CHICAGO - Longtime Mesirow Financial Inc. municipal professional Lawrence Morris, its former public finance banking manager, retired from the firm last month.

CHICAGO - Chicago faces a $635.7 million budget gap in 2012 that could rise to nearly $800 million in 2014 if the city doesn't take steps to better align its spending and revenues, Mayor Rahm Emanuel warned Friday in announcing preliminary budget figures.

CHICAGO - With its seven-year-old $6 billion capital program nearing completion, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority on Thursday unveiled a follow-up $12 billion, 15-year plan that relies on a toll increase to help repay an estimated $4.8 billion of new borrowing.

CHICAGO - New York-based Rice Financial Products Co. announced this week the addition of veteran public finance professional Courtney Knight to its Chicago office to help carve out more Midwestern business and bolster its state-level business nationwide.

CHICAGO - The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has assembled a group of 25 public employers and pension plans to "field test" the implementation of its proposed changes to state and local governments pension accounting standards, according to the organization's research manager.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court last week overturned an appeals court ruling and upheld the tax-exempt status of an outpatient facility operated by nonprofit Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare.

Gov. Pat Quinn last week made four appointments to the board of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, including former state Senate President Emil Jones Jr. as its chairman.

CHICAGO - The top-rated College of DuPage in Illinois will hold its first-ever retail order period Tuesday for $105 million of mostly new-money bonds that will finance various building improvement and maintenance projects, including the completion of its Homeland Security Education Center.

CHICAGO - In a sign of Illinois' ongoing fiscal challenges, its net assets deteriorated by $8.4 billion in fiscal 2010, pushing its deficit in that category of financial reporting up to a negative $37.9 billion, according to a new report from state auditor general William Holland.

CHICAGO - Moody's Investors Service has raised its rating on the International Falls Economic Development Authority's $11.4 million of taxable lease revenue bonds that financed a new headquarters for National Parks Service at the nearby Voyageurs National Park now that the government is using the facility.

CHICAGO - The trustee on $113 million of bonds that financed construction of privately owned Branson Airport drew on supplemental reserves to make a July 1 debt service payment as the operators work to bolster business and stave off future enforcement actions by bondholders.

CHICAGO - Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed 12 budget-related bills Wednesday, paving the way for the state's sale later this summer of $600 million to $700 million of general obligation bonds for capital projects and the fall sale of tobacco bonds to help balance the new $35 billion budget.

CHICAGO - The Illinois Finance Authority board Tuesday signed off on Advocate Health Care Network's sale of up to $533 million of new-money and refunding bonds, and the newly merged Central DuPage Health-Delnor Health System's $190 million direct-purchase issue.

CHICAGO - With a selection process underway to update its underwriting pools, Wisconsin on Wednesday will take bids on $338 million of bonds in its first general obligation sale following the adoption of a $66 billion budget that moves the state closer to structural balance.

Moody's Investors Service last week affirmed Fairfield Medical Center's Baa2 rating and revised its outlook to stable from negative, citing its sustained operating improvements. The action affects $34.2 million of rated debt.

Moody's Investors Service has revised its outlook on Saint Luke's Health System's A1 rating to stable from negative due to its improved operating performance. The action affects $532 million of debt issued through the Missouri Health and Educational Facilities Authority.

Former Chicago corporation counsel Mara Georges has followed her boss, former Mayor Richard Daley, to the law firm of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP as a partner.

Construction of a western bypass expressway around O'Hare International Airport would create at least 78,000 jobs and strengthen the regional economy, but financing the $3 billion project likely would have to come from tolls, according to an advisory council report announced by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn last week.

Moody's Investors Service changed its outlook on Decatur Memorial Hospital's A2 rating to negative from stable due to a downturn in its operating performance. The action applies to nearly $40 million of debt.