Infrastructure

DALLAS - Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday approved a $13 billion state budget for fiscal 2010 that relies on spending cuts, fund adjustments, and $585 million in federal stimulus funds to eliminate an expected $680 million revenue shortfall next year.

CHICAGO - Chicago will give the private consortium that wants to lease the city's Midway Airport for 99 years for an up-front payment of $2.5 billion up to an additional six months to put its financing scheme together.

CHICAGO - Ohio lawmakers were poised to vote late yesterday on a $9.6 billion, two-year state transportation budget that would include a new bond program as well as expanded authority for the state to enter into public-private partnerships to raise revenue.

SAN FRANCISCO - Transportation projects are in front of the line as California disburses the larger than expected proceeds of last week's general obligation bond sale.

A state legislative panel approved a request from the Ohio Department of Transportation to set aside $450,000 in funding to study the cost of setting up passenger rail service among the state’s major cities.

DALLAS - The Oklahoma Transportation Commission on Monday awarded $228.4 million of construction contracts financed by money the state will receive from the $787 billion federal infrastructure stimulus plan.

DALLAS - Development of a $1.5 billion DFW Connector project is expected to begin this year to funnel traffic to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport within five years.

J. Randolph "Randy" Babbitt, a longtime pilot and aviation consultant, will be nominated by President Obama to be the new chief of the Federal Aviation Administration under the Department of Transportation, the White House said Friday.

WASHINGTON - The airport sector's troubled credit outlook will continue into 2010, and airport issuers' will likely experience more ratings downgrades and negative outlook actions during that time, Fitch Ratings warned in a report yesterday. However, it said the downgrades probably won't be worse than one or two notches.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority plans to come to market tomorrow with $163 million of variable-rate airport system revenue bonds backed by a standby bond purchase agreement from Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg.