Yvette Shields

Moody’s Investors Service upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2 its rating on $6.1 million of Menahga Independent School District 821’s general obligation debt due to its stable financial performance.

Standard & Poor’s last week dropped the underlying rating on pieces of Midwest Family Housing LLC’s Series 2006A bonds and assigned a negative outlook due to poor debt-service coverage ratios and suspension of work on the project.

More than 20 school superintendents from across Illinois met in Chicago last week to discuss aid cuts, and called on state leaders to avert $1.3 billion in funding reductions proposed in the fiscal 2011 budget.

CHICAGO — While the market’s attention is focused on Chicago’s sale of more than $1 billion of new-money and refunding debt for O’Hare International Airport this week, the city is also preparing to refund and reoffer pieces of its Midway Airport debt it had hoped to retire with its now-stalled plan to privatize the facility.

After debuting its new 16,000-square-foot trading floor earlier this month, Chicago-based BMO Capital Markets is now looking to fill some of its empty seats with taxable traders and hire additional bankers to generate more product for its desk as the firm seeks to crack the top-10 list of senior managers of municipal offerings.

Illinois faces increasing pressure on liquidity as a short-term borrowing is coming due, putting the state on pace to close out the fiscal year on June 30 with a $5.5 billion backlog of bills, Comptroller Daniel Hynes warned in a recent report.

CHICAGO — More than three years after opening a Chicago office, Public Financial Management Inc. has hired longtime Jefferies & Co. public finance banker Jill Jaworski as its first financial adviser based in Chicago. The firm expects to announce hiring at least two additional advisers later this spring.

CHICAGO — The financial outlooks for the St. Louis Metro and Menasha, Wis., brightened this week after voters approved a sales tax increase for the struggling transit agency and a sale-leaseback transaction for the city that will help it settle $23 million of defaulted debt.

CHICAGO — Federal officials yesterday announced $410 million in new funding to help support Chicago’s $8 billion runway expansion project at O’Hare International Airport, an award that comes one week ahead of the city’s sale of more than $1.1 billion of new-money and refunding O’Hare debt.

Standard & Poor’s downgraded Jackson County’s 2006 special obligation bonds issued for the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex project by one notch to A-plus due to a weakened financial position that follows several consecutive years of general fund shortfalls.

Moody’s Investors Service last week upgraded St. Peter Independent School District 508’s general obligation rating one notch to Baa1, affecting $1.6 million of debt. Analysts said they expect the district’s financial position will remain stable given management’s conservative budgeting practices and reserve policy.

Moody’s Investors Service stripped Proctor Hospital of its investment grade rating recently, lowering the credit to Ba1 from Baa3 and warning of further action by assigning a negative outlook due to a decline in operating performance since fiscal 2007.

The state put 95 schools on its watch and early warning list following an annual review of districts’ financial status in the Illinois Board of Education’s 2010 school district financial profile report.

CHICAGO — The St. Louis Metro transit agency and Menasha, Wis., will face voters tomorrow with ballot measures aimed at aiding their fiscal health.

CHICAGO — The Iowa Legislature adjourned this week after passing a $5.28 billion budget that relied on cuts, reserves, and savings from a reorganization plan to offset shrinking revenue, and included a $45 million increase in the state’s bond-financed Iowa Jobs capital program.

CHICAGO — Moody’s Investors Service placed on negative watch five Wisconsin school districts involved in a risky investment to help fund their other post-employment benefits. The move follows Depfa Bank Plc’s decision last month to demand repayment of notes issued to fund the investment.

CHICAGO — As Illinois prepares to offer investors $1.3 billion of general obligation bonds, the pressure on its credit ratings escalated this week with one agency downgrading the state and two warning that further action looms if lawmakers again turn to one-time measures to balance the budget.

CHICAGO — Moody’s Investors Service yesterday downgraded O’Hare International Airport’s passenger facility charge-backed bonds to A2 from A1 ahead of Chicago’s sale in mid-April of roughly $1.3 billion of new-money and refunding airport-related bonds.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission last week announced the resignation of Pete Rahn as head of the Missouri Department of Transportation.

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority last week picked Kristi Lafleur, a close aide of Gov. Pat Quinn, to become its new executive director.