Yvette Shields

CHICAGO — Illinois lawmakers entered the homestretch of their annual regular session this week facing a crowded agenda topped by budget questions, including whether to use borrowing to pay down bills — a debate that prompted a threat from the treasurer to call investors and warn them against buying state bonds.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is opposed to extending a 0.1% Miller Park baseball stadium sales tax to fund a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks, according to published reports.

Gov. Pat Quinn last week named former Illinois Finance Authority executive director Kym Hubbard as the new chairwoman of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

New Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel last week signed an executive order creating a long-term budget and financial planning process.

The Illinois General Assembly recently passed legislation to establish a commission charged with recommending the best way to implement a public-private partnership to aid in financing, construction and operation of a high-speed rail system.

CHICAGO — Minneapolis has tapped its police department finance director, Kevin Carpenter, to serve as the city’s chief financial officer following the departure of Patrick Born earlier this year to lead the Metropolitan Council.

CHICAGO — A third financial advisory professional from Scott Balice Strategies LLC has opted to join Acacia Financial Group Inc. over Public Finance Management Inc., following PFM’s acquisition of Chicago-based Scott Balice last week.

CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday named a task force led by public finance banker Carole Brown to recommend tax-increment financing reforms.

CHICAGO — San Francisco-based Grigsby & Associates has added two public finance bankers to its Chicago staff and opened a St. Louis office to bolster its issuer relationships and technical prowess as it aims for more senior-manager work.

CHICAGO — At its first meeting presided over by new Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved his first major piece of legislation: a council reorganization.

CHICAGO — The Illinois attorney general’s office and lawyers for a liquor distributor squared off before the state Supreme Court this week over whether the state’s 2009 $31 billion public works program — and the funding streams approved to repay bonding for it — are legal.

CHICAGO — The Chicago Public Schools’ chief financial officer, Diana Ferguson, has resigned her position effective next week, but will continue to work on a pro bono basis until a replacement is named, officials said this week.

CHICAGO — New Jersey-based Acacia Financial Group Inc. announced Tuesday the expansion of its Chicago office and a new Alaska outpost with the hiring of two former Scott Balice Strategies LLC financial advisers, Phoebe Selden and Debbie Schnebel.

The East St. Louis School District 189 board last week voted to support a state takeover of the fiscally and academically ailing system, and canceled its contract with superintendent Theresa Saunders.

After his swearing-in Monday, new Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel signed a series of executive orders aimed at strengthening the city’s ethics rules.

CHICAGO — The country’s top-ranked financial advisory firm, Public Financial Management Inc., has acquired one of its leading Midwestern competitors, Scott Balice Strategies LLC, whose co-founder and senior partner, Lois Scott, took over as Chicago’s chief financial officer on Monday.

CHICAGO — Philadelphia-based PFM Group announced Monday it will acquire Chicago-based Scott Balice Strategies LLC — the firm co-owned by new Chicago chief financial officer Lois Scott.

CHICAGO — After more than two decades in office, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley on Monday hands the reins over to Rahm Emanuel, leaving behind a legacy highlighted by major bond-financed projects and infrastructure investment, but marred by the city’s daunting fiscal challenges.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin now expects to collect at least $600 million more in tax revenues over the next three years than previously projected, but Gov. Scott Walker said most of the increase would go to pay off existing obligations, not to ease deep education and local government spending cuts proposed in his next budget.

CHICAGO — In a deal that debuts expanded disclosure about its pension obligations, Missouri will take competitive bids Tuesday on $76.9 million of refunding certificates of participation with the savings aimed at providing budgetary relief.