Yvette Shields

CHICAGO — As Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Thursday increasing Illinois’ income tax, his debt manager met with rating agencies while the state plans to issue $3.7 billion of pension bonds next month and may resurrect a failed $8.75 billion borrowing to pay bills.

CHICAGO — Veteran Minnesota-based financial adviser Kristin Hanson will take the reins of debt management for the state’s Office of Management and Budget, commissioner Jim Schowalter announced this week.

CHICAGO — Fitch Ratings on Wednesday lowered its rating on O’Hare International Airport’s upcoming $1.1 billion issue of passenger facility charge bonds by two notches due to the airport’s increased leverage as Chicago seeks to fund remaining projects under an $8 billion expansion without airline support.

CHICAGO — As rating agencies and investors digested details of the Illinois General Assembly’s vote increasing state income taxes by two-thirds, Gov. Pat Quinn defended the action Wednesday as being necessary for the state to dig itself out of its fiscal crisis.

CHICAGO – Illinois lawmakers narrowly approved an income tax increase to ease the state’s fiscal crisis and $3.7 billion of bonding to cover pension payments, but rejected other key pieces of a fiscal bailout plan including a $1 cigarette tax hike and an $8.75 billion borrowing to pay off mounting bills.

CHICAGO — Using a structure that bypasses airline approval, Chicago will enter the market early next month with a long-planned sale of $1.1 billion of debt for O’Hare International Airport.

Illinois’ establishment of a program linking state vendors with private ­investors willing to purchase overdue vouchers underscores the severity of its chronic bill-payment deferrals, but shouldn’t impact its credit standing, according to a recent report from Moody’s Investors Service.

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn was sworn into office for his first full term Monday, with the clock ticking on a budget deal being pushed by Democratic leaders in the final days of a lame-duck session to raise taxes and borrow more than $12 billion to tackle a looming $15 billion deficit.

CHICAGO — San Francisco-based Grigsby & Associates Inc. last year added to its investment banking team in Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco and its sales and trading desk group in New York as it seeks to bolster its ability to serve as a senior manager

CHICAGO — With a round of positive credit action to tout, DePaul University in Chicago will enter the market this month with $165 million of debt that will include its first new-money sale to fund capital projects in more than a decade.

CHICAGO –Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and legislative leaders have reached a tentative agreement to shore up the state’s balance sheet by raising the income and cigarette taxes and leveraging a portion of the new revenue to borrow $8.5 billion to pay off overdue bills. The plan also anticipates borrowing $3.7 billion to cover the state’s fiscal 2011 pension payment.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin will competitively sell $430 million of 20-year general obligation bonds Thursday to fund bricks-and-mortar capital projects in the new administration’s first debt issuance, according to capital finance director Frank Hoadley.

CHICAGO — Struggling to remain afloat, Iowa’s Xenia Rural Water District is working on a final debt restructuring plan to submit to its board and may do so later this month, officials said Wednesday.

CHICAGO — The Minnesota attorney general’s office and lawyers representing state retirees in a lawsuit challenging benefit cuts will lay out their cases by the end of the month in summary judgment motions that seek a quick ruling.

CHICAGO — The new governors of neighboring Minnesota and Wisconsin, in their inaugural addresses this week, offered similar pledges to tighten their states’ belts and focus on job creation, but veered far apart on the issue of tax increases.

The Illinois Department of Transportation late last month signed an agreement with Amtrak and the Union Pacific Railroad that paves the way for using $1.1 billion in federal funds for necessary improvements to high-speed passenger rail service between Chicago and St. Louis.

Moody’s Investors Service on Monday downgraded the DuPage Water Commission’s debt by three notches and left a negative outlook because the utility has depleted its reserves and borrowed to cover operations.

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn late last week signed into law public safety pension reforms that raised the ire of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley who warned the changes would drive up property taxes by $550 million.

The Racine Unified School District will ask voters on the April ballot to approve $83.5 million of general obligation borrowing.

Missouri expects to collect an additional 4% in revenues during fiscal 2012, according to the latest revenue forecast that Gov. Jay Nixon will use to craft the next budget.