Infrastructure

CHICAGO - St. Louis enters the market next week with up to $230 million of Lambert St. Louis International Airport revenue bonds to raise $126 million for projects and to refund bonds through a tender option designed to take advantage of the relief provided by the federal stimulus from the alternative minimum tax.

House Transportation Committee chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., is expected to unveil a white paper tomorrow outlining the upcoming multi-year highway bill, but it probably will not contain details about the funding levels, revenue sources, or tax provisions necessary to pay for transportation programs, sources said yesterday.

Moody’s Investors Service last week placed the Chicago Transit Authority’s $2 billion of sales and transfer tax receipts bonds and lease revenue bonds on negative watch, an action that stems from Moody’s downgrade earlier this month of the CTA’s parent agency.

DALLAS - The North Texas Tollway Authority is all but certain to raise tolls to preserve its debt-service coverage after revenues for 2009 fell by nearly 11%, officials indicated yesterday.

Standard & Poor’s this week knocked the Detroit Local Development Finance Authority’s tax increment financing bonds Series 1997B and C and 1998A further into junk bond territory due to “significant uncertainty” over the future of a Chrysler plant that makes up most of the taxable value of the district.

SAN FRANCISCO - Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. has announced the formation of a transportation finance group.

DALLAS - Dallas Area Rapid Transit expects to make history with its record $1 billion bond issue today. The triple-A rated deal is not only DART's largest ever, but the biggest in the Southwest so far this year.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Atlanta Board of Education on Monday affirmed its participation in two of the city’s tax allocation districts, clearing a major hurdle to advancing up to $200 million of bonds for the long-delayed BeltLine project.

DALLAS - With the fate of five state agencies in limbo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry confirmed that he will call a special session of the Legislature, but said he has not decided when or what issues will be included.

Bucking a nationwide trend of decline for most airports, the rating outlook for Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport last week was revised to stable from negative when its credit ratings were affirmed.