Florida

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida’s largest ever public-private partnership — a $1.8 billion, limited-access toll road in Jacksonville — will begin moving forward soon.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A biomedical institute on Florida’s east coast is exploring replacing its planned conduit issuer in hopes of lowering the cost of selling $70 million of bonds to finance the construction of a research ­facility.

BRADENTON, Fla. — With President Obama’s signature barely dry on the massive health care reform bill, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Treasury Department and the Department of Labor, alleging that the bill is unconstitutional.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority in central Florida expects to be in the market today with retail pricing of up to $375 million of revenue bonds.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Miami-Dade County Commission today will review a financial crisis that has enveloped the public health system whose flagship is Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Miami, which tangled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over financial disclosure issues earlier this decade, has hired the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius to represent it in the SEC’s latest probe.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The South Florida Water Management District yesterday unanimously extended a key contract deadline for its controversial plan to purchase land owned by U.S. Sugar Corp.

BRADENTON, Fla. — With the 2010 hurricane season set to begin June 1, Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is preparing to price between $2 billion and $2.4 billion of debt to raise ready cash in case it is needed to pay claims for storm-related damages.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Securities and Exchange Commission sent the Florida State Board of Administration a one-paragraph letter last week stating that the agency will not recommend enforcement action regarding the meltdown of what was one of the largest local government investment pools in the country.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Two members of Florida’s congressional delegation Friday said more federal funding is on the way for high-speed rail for the state and other areas of the country.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday that it has reached a $1.95 million settlement with First Allied Securities Inc. for failing to supervise one of its former brokers who engaged in unauthorized, fraudulent trading in the accounts of two Florida municipalities.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida will need full funding to build a high-speed rail network from Tampa to Orlando, and eventually on to Miami, Nazih Haddad, chief operating officer for the state’s new Florida Rail Enterprise program, said yesterday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Florida Legislature will consider implementing the state’s first-ever intercept program designed to provide credit enhancement for municipal bonds.

In a special report Monday, Fitch Ratings said negative rating actions against Florida credits last year outpaced positive actions by three-to-one, but the agency expects ratings to stabilize in 2010.

Palm Beach County commissioners Tuesday selected Ruden McClosky Smith Schuster & Russell PA to be bond counsel and to perform related legal services related to the development of a planned convention center hotel.

Miami-Dade County expects to be in the market early next week for a two-day pricing of $600 million of water and sewer bonds — the first round of large yearly debt sales for a newly revised $4.2 billion capital improvement program.

BRADENTON, Fla. — ­Investors in Florida’s distressed community development districts should expect an increasing number of defaults, primarily on bonds sold during the state’s real estate boom years, a new report by ­Interactive Data Corp. warned yesterday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court Monday decided to hear oral arguments on April 7 in the South Florida Water Management District’s quest to get legal validation for $650 million of certificates of participation, the sale of which is being opposed by two ­appellants.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida Gov. Charlie Crist Friday unveiled a $69.2 billion budget proposal for fiscal 2011 that, if accepted by the Legislature, would authorize the least amount of annual debt issuance in more than a decade.

WASHINGTON — High-speed rail proponents rejoiced yesterday after President Obama announced the Federal Railroad Administration has awarded 31 states with a total of $8 billion of high-speed rail grants, the largest of which will go to California, Florida, and the Midwest region.