Florida

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $51 million of auction-rate securities that were issued in a conduit deal in 2005 by the Orange County, Fla., Health Facilities Authority to current-refund bonds and finance a hospital project.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Flush with cash, Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has increased the number of outside managers it uses to invest bond proceeds and other funds.

As part of an ongoing initiative to examine developer-driven deals, the Internal Revenue Service is auditing $48.47 million of defaulted bonds issued by the Stoneybrook South Community Development District in Florida in 2007 for infrastructure improvements.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Baker Correctional Development Corp. in Florida’s panhandle notified bondholders Monday that it entered a forbearance agreement for principal payments due to start next month on $45 million of unrated bonds sold in 2008.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A convergence of factors is pushing bond issuance costs up this year — including fallout from the “headline risk” associated with predictions of increased municipal bankruptcy, local officials from across Florida learned Friday.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida school districts and local governments should brace for impacts from state budget cuts that could be more than $3.5 billion, according to elected and financial officials at a seminar Friday in Orlando.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The first team in the National Football League to play in a privately financed stadium now wants as much as $225 million of public funds to bring its 24-year-old facility up to “world-class” ­standards.

BRADENTON, Fla. — North Florida’s Mid-Bay Bridge Authority expects to price $170 million of new and refunding springing-lien revenue bonds Thursday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority in the Florida Panhandle made its January debt-service payment, but its July payment is in doubt and most board members overseeing the credit have now resigned.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority in Florida will use the proceeds from $750 million of short-term, tax-exempt revenue bonds to provide initial financing for one of the first state-of-the-art waste-to-energy facilities to be built in the U.S. in many years.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Based on current revenue projections and existing borrowing plans, Florida does not have capacity to issue debt for new programs for the next two fiscal years and stay within its self-imposed debt cap.

Significant changes to Florida's government structure and budget cuts being proposed by advisory teams assembled by incoming Republican Gov. Rick Scott are raising eyebrows.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum Wednesday announced a $25 million settlement with JPMorgan to resolve allegations that the investment bank improperly sold unregistered securities to the local government investment pool.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Southwest Florida Expressway Authority had the potential to issue hundreds of millions in bonds for a toll-road project that was once estimated to cost nearly $1 billion.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Coral Gables' issuer rating to Aa1 from Aaa on Tuesday due to the city's historically narrow financial reserve position. Its total general fund balance as a percentage of operating revenues historically has been around 8% and "well below" the median for a Aaa-rated credit, said Moody's analyst John Nichols.

Florida economists are now predicting a bigger budget shortfall than they projected just three months ago in a change that could translate into less bonding power for the state in fiscal 2012.

The Tennessee State Funding Board is expected to approve a new model debt policy Wednesday establishing minimum requirements for all issuers selling debt, including state and local borrowers.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority in north Florida has received a letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission inquiring about “disclosure issues,” the board’s attorney, Roy Andrews, said during a special meeting late Wednesday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Although Florida Governor-elect Rick Scott has yet to take a position on the fate of high-speed rail, the state agency overseeing the project is moving toward seeking qualified consortiums to build the $2.6 billion Tampa-to-Orlando line.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Seven months after the largest oil spill in U.S. history, the credit ratings of state and local government bond issuers in the Gulf Coast region have remained stable, according to Moody’s Investors Service.