Georgia

BRADENTON, Fla. — Atlanta announced a lease agreement with airlines Tuesday that should enable the city to move forward with a long-awaited financing for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The Atlanta City Council Monday approved issuing $145 million of new and refunding taxable bonds for Philips Arena, home to the National Basketball Association's Hawks and the Atlanta Thrashers, a National Hockey League expansion team.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue named Tommy Hills on Monday as the state's new treasurer, effective Sept. 1. Hills has been the state's first-ever chief financial officer since 2003. He succeeds retiring Dan Ebersole, who served 13 years.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Boosted by the popularity of Build America Bonds and refunding opportunities, issuers in the 11 states that comprise the Southeast region sold $34.5 billion of municipal bonds in the first half of 2010, up 7.4% over the same period last year.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Georgia Department of Transportation is moving forward with its second public-private partnership project — a long-discussed multi-modal passenger terminal in downtown Atlanta.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has selected municipal finance veteran Joya De Foor as his nominee to become the new chief financial officer of Georgia’s largest city.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Atlanta is looking for companies interested in setting up operations in its commercial tax allocation districts.

Gov. Sonny Perdue has announced that net revenue collections for May totaled $1.18 billion compared to $1.26 billion a year ago, a decrease of 6%, or $75.5 million for the month.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Georgia Department of Transportation Monday announced the appointment of Sandra Burgess as the new director of its public-private partnership program.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The governors of Kentucky and Tennessee have declared states of emergency to deal with disastrous floods and tornadoes that hit the states over the past weekend.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Three consortiums representing 15 local, national, and international firms have submitted qualifications to the Georgia Department of Transportation for consideration to develop the state’s first public-private partnership road project.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Georgia General Assembly ended its annual session last Thursday after passing a $38.5 billion budget for fiscal 2011 representing a $100 million increase over the current budget.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Atlanta City Council on Monday formally adopted a five-year budget stabilization planning process to eliminate deficits in certain funds, examine options to reduce unfunded pension benefits, and fix aging infrastructure with planned long-term bond issues.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue Tuesday announced that net revenue collections for March totaled $998.24 million compared to $987.98 million in March 2009, an increase of 1%. The slight rise was the first monthly increase since November 2008.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Georgia Department of Transportation announced Thursday that long-time agency member and former treasurer Earl Mahfuz had retired.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Georgia Department of Transportation on Friday released its solicitation for qualified firms to do the state’s first public-private partnership, a plan called the West by Northwest Project that is designed to bring needed traffic-congestion relief to metropolitan Atlanta.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A myriad of options, including the use of pension bonds, are being considered in Atlanta, where spending on retirement benefits has soared to 20% of the city’s $523 million annual operating budget and the unfunded liability is now $1.5 billion.

After receiving a federal loan commitment Tuesday, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia yesterday announced it would soon sell $2.53 billion of municipal bonds for the project. The U.S. Department of Energy said MEAG would receive approximately $1.8 billion in loan guarantees toward construction of its share of two new nuclear units being planned at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.

Atlanta BeltLine Inc.'s board of directors last week selected lead designers for the BeltLine project and established the basis for future design and construction, the agency announced.

The Atlanta City Council Monday voted to pay a swap termination fee to UBS AG that could cost as much as $25 million. The swap was used to hedge $217 million of the city’s variable-rate water and sewer bonds.