Yvette Shields

Moody’s Investors Service stripped Dane County of its top credit marks due to its declining fund balance and warned of a potential future downgrade ahead of its $24 million general obligation bond sale last week. The issue included a tranche of recovery zone economic development bonds authorized in the federal stimulus program.

Gov. Pat Quinn’s reshaping of various state-related agencies with bonding powers continued last week with the Illinois Housing Development Authority board’s formal appointment of Quinn’s former deputy chief of staff Gloria L. Materre to the post of executive director.

CHICAGO - Moody's Investors Service yesterday downgraded the Chicago Transit Authority's $1.9 billion of debt from its 2008 pension-related issue one notch to A1, citing the compounding strains of faltering sales and real estate transaction taxes along with Illinois' liquidity problems.

CHICAGO - Downtown Chicago-based Roosevelt University is planning to sell up to $210 million of new-money and refunding bonds later this year to raise funds for a new multi-use building that will include new student housing as part of its evolution from a commuter school to a residential urban campus.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin has agreed to purchase with general obligation bond proceeds the struggling Wisconsin Exposition Center under a $16.9 million deal that will retire its $40.7 million of tax-exempt debt — a move that eases a fiscal strain that had hurt the facility’s ability to operate in the black.

CHICAGO - Wells Fargo & Co. yesterday announced the hiring of three veteran public power and two prominent public finance bankers, all drawn from the ranks of former Bank of America-Merrill Lynch staff as part of the firm's ongoing efforts to round out its national public finance team.

CHICAGO — In a transaction that will mark the state’s first-ever use of negotiation to sell its general obligation bonds, Minnesota is putting the finishing touches on a $480 million new-money issue with an eye towards testing retail appetite for its top-rated paper.

The Chicago City Council last week gave Mayor Richard Daley approval to sign the International Olympics Committee’s host city contract, which puts the city on the hook financially if the 2016 Summer Games lose money.

A lawsuit filed by a Chicago-area citizens group seeking to void the city’s controversial $1.12 billion 75-year lease of its parking meter system survived its first challenge last week when a Cook County judge found reasonable grounds to allow the complaint to be filed.