Yvette Shields

CHICAGO — The Illinois ­Finance Authority board yesterday signed off on more than $1 billion of borrowing, mostly on behalf of nonprofit hospitals seeking to enter the tax-exempt market before the end of the year.

Standard & Poor’s downgraded Winona Health Obligated Group’s debt one notch to BBB-minus — just one step above junk status — due to ongoing operating losses.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty last week proposed a constitutional amendment that would limit general fund spending to a level equal to revenue collections over the last two-year budget cycle.

Standard & Poor’s downgraded Bloomington’s rating one notch to AA-minus and warned of further action by assigning a negative outlook. Analysts cited he city’s ongoing financial deterioration caused by a its inability to close a budget gap.

The Chicago Transit Authority’s proposed $1.3 billion 2010 budget received the endorsement of a local government finance watchdog group for tackling its revenue shortfall with cuts and fare increases.

CHICAGO — Chicago-based Roosevelt University enters the market next week to sell $188 million of debt to finance a new multi-use building that officials believe was worth a rating downgrade for the school to keep its transformation from a commuter school to a residential urban campus on track.

CHICAGO — The fiscal strain of deteriorating pension funding levels on local and state governments could contribute to downgrades in the next several years, especially among those governments that entered the recession with poor funding ratios or have little flexibility in their funding requirements, a new report from Moody’s Investors Service warns.

CHICAGO — The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority will head into the market this fall with the sale of up to $300 million of toll-backed revenue bonds in a deal that will mark the final financing planned for its five-year-old $6 billion capital program.

CHICAGO — Kansas City, Mo.-based Children’s Mercy Hospital enters the market beginning today with a retail order period on its $180.7 million of new-money and refunding revenue bonds that will introduce fixed-rate bonds to the well-known hospital’s debt portfolio.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced the state would cut 700 positions, Medicaid payments, and school transportation funds to trim $204 million from the $23.7 billion budget for fiscal 2010.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver last week announced the state would cut an additional 180 positions and require 3,200 nonunion employees to take seven unpaid days off work to help balance the budget.

CHICAGO — Though student demand remains strong, the recession is taking its toll on tuition and fee revenue at some private higher education institutions, and the stress is expected to hurt the operating performance of some schools, especially in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic regions, a new report being released today from Moody’s Investors Service found.

CHICAGO — Minnesota’s largest not-for-profit health care provider, Allina Health System, enters the market next week with the first piece of its nearly $400 million new-money and refunding issue with a trifecta of upgrades in hand — a rarity for the hard-hit sector.

CHICAGO — Atlanta-based Jackson Securities LLC last month hired public finance banker James F. Carter for its existing Chicago office, which has lacked a local banker since the departure of Dudley Brown in 2007 following a management shake-up.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle yesterday announced a package of education-related reform legislation that would hand the control of the struggling Milwaukee Public Schools system over to the city’s mayor.

Fitch Ratings downgraded the Monroe Clinic Inc.’s rating one notch to A-minus due to its plans to added debt load that will come early month with the issuance of $65 million of fixed-rate bonds.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley earlier this month named John S. Gates as the new chairman of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority board.

Standard & Poor’s raised its rating on the Will County Forest Preserve District’s general obligation debt one notch to AA-plus in recognition of strong financial performance supported by annual operating surpluses and boosted reserves.

CHICAGO — The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission enters the market beginning today with its second large financing in recent months as it sells $300 million of mostly taxable Build America Bonds, the final tranche of borrowing planned under a $2.2 billion road building program.

CHICAGO — The Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission enters the market as soon as tomorrow with its first sale this year, a $156 million refunding that should generate about $7 million in savings to help the agency as it manages through the recession and its impact on air travel and the airlines.