Yvette Shields

CHICAGO – Moody’s Investors Service this afternoon downgraded Illinois’ $24 billion of general obligation and related debt by one notch to A2 due to the size of the state’s structural budget imbalance and delays in legislative action to address the state’s revenue problems.

CHICAGO — With an upgrade from Moody’s Investors Service in hand, Oak Brook, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care Network enters the market beginning today with $240 million of fixed-rate bonds in a deal that cements the Chicago area’s largest health care provider’s acquisition of ­BroMenn Health System.

CHICAGO — Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes Friday afternoon announced he would not sign off on Gov. Pat Quinn’s request to issue $500 million of general obligation cash-flow certificates to help pay down a growing backlog of bills, warning that the state can’t afford the additional borrowing.

CHICAGO — Chicago-based Loop Capital Markets LLC has hired Alexander Rorke, the former manager of UBS’ Chicago public finance banking group, to lead its municipal banking group with the charge to move the firm up into the ranks of top senior managers.

CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council yesterday approved a $6.14 billion 2010 budget, putting aside concerns over Mayor Richard Daley’s drain on reserves established with proceeds of the city’s parking meter lease to erase a $520 million deficit in order to avoid raising taxes and fees.

Standard & Poor’s this week announced it had raised the ratings on 11 school districts in Missouri and Wisconsin following a review based on revised credit criteria for smaller districts.

Fitch Ratings last week downgraded Resurrection Health Care one notch to BBB-plus due to operating losses.

CHICAGO — The Clare at Water Tower, an upscale ­high-rise senior-living community in downtown Chicago that has struggled to meet financial ­projections due to cost ­overruns, construction delays, and ­faltering occupancy rates, drew $554,000 from its debt-service reserves to cover its Nov. 15 debt-service payment.

CHICAGO — The Chicago Board of Education plans to enter the market as soon as next week with a $254 million unlimited-tax general obligation issue that will tap its full qualified school construction bond allocation for 2009.

Fitch Ratings last week stripped the Chesterfield Valley Transportation Development District’s 2006 sales tax bonds of their investment-grade rating as the issuer is expected to tap debt service reserves to fully cover its April payment.

The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission last week signed off on a resolution designed to keep the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome for an extra two years.

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Grand Rapids, Minn.’s one notch to A2 due to credit challenges that include a tax base that is highly concentrated and dependent on one local corporation.

CHICAGO — The St. Louis convention center hotel complex now owned by bondholders formally asked late last week to extend the deadline for a payment in lieu of taxes it owes the city at the end of the year to help stave off a shortfall in working capital expected this winter.

CHICAGO — The board of the Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois late last week approved the issuance of up to $166 million of bonds to free up federal capital funds to help trim a Chicago Transit Authority budget deficit and stave off a fare increase.

CHICAGO — The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority tomorrow enters the market with its second Build America Bond sale of the year — a $280 million revenue bond issue that marks the final borrowing needed for the agency’s five-year-old $6 billion rebuilding and expansion of the Chicago-area toll highway system.

CHICAGO — The recession and market downturn has profoundly affected the funded status of state pension plans, driving up some states’ overall debt levels and putting some credits at risk, Loop Capital Markets LLC analysts warn in new report.

CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council yesterday approved up to $2.85 billion of general obligation and airport bonds slated for sale in early 2010 and signed off on a settlement with a neighboring suburb that ends its litigation against the $8 billion expansion of O’Hare International Airport.

CHICAGO — Triple-A rated Hennepin County, Minn., today competitively sells $80 million of new-money general obligation bonds to raise funds for an ongoing five-year capital program that was scaled down to $757 million from $900 million to help address a budget crunch.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority on Monday announced that it would likely cut about 20% of its employees to help trim a budget shortfall estimated at nearly $29 million.

Chicago and Bensenville on Monday announced a $16 million settlement that ends opposition to the city’s $8 billion expansion of O’Hare International Airport.