Illinois

Illinois’ yield penalties widened Thursday as the nation’s lowest rated state sold $1.3 billion of general obligation refunding bonds against a tide of negative fiscal and market headwinds.

Chicago's tax-increment financing program is in the spotlight after the city said it would release a bigger-than-planned chunk of surplus TIF revenues to help Chicago Public Schools pay for a new teachers' contract.

Illinois will remarket floating-rate paper in a direct placement set for Nov. 7, resolving a potential strain that expiring letters of credit posed for its already stressed balance sheet.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveiled his 2017 budget proposal Tuesday using the occasion to promote what he portrayed as the city’s fiscal turnaround.

Junk-rated Chicago Public Schools averted a teachers’ strike after striking a tentative four-year deal with union leaders during negotiations that came down to the wire.

Chicago received an outlook boost from S&P Global Ratings, to stable from negative.

Illinois may refund of some of its $1.5 billion in 2010 tobacco settlement bonds.

Chicago penalized Wells Fargo on two fronts Wednesday over its phony accounts scandal.

Fallout from the Wells Fargo phony accounts scandal has reached Midwest bond borrowers, with Illinois announcing bans on bond and investment work and the Chicago City Council set to consider a moratorium on any bond-related business.

Already the lowest rated state, Illinois suffered a new downgrade as S&P Global Ratings dropped it to BBB ahead of $1.8 billion in bond sales.

Wells Fargo would lose out on financial business with the city of Chicago for two years under an ordinance proposed Friday by the City Council’s powerful Finance Committee chairman in the aftermath of the firm’s phony accounts scandal.

Illinois has until the end of January to make headway with its budget woes before Fitch Ratings is prepared to sock it with a downgrade.

Chicago-based financial advisor Melanie Shaker is returning to her rating agency roots, joining S&P Global Ratings on the commercial side.

Illinois plans to return to the market next month with a $1.3 billion general obligation refunding that would be followed by a $480 million new money GO issue.

Chicago Public Schools’ fiscal gains this year are fading to the background as a potential teachers strike looms large and a new downgrade puts the district on the cusp of the triple-C category.

Changes in assumed investment return rates at four of Illinois’ five state employee pension funds, as well as other revised assumptions in areas like life expectancy, are raising pressure on the state to tackle pension reforms.

The Chicago Teachers Union is moving closer to a strike that would mark a setback in the junk-rated Chicago Public Schools’ efforts to stabilize its finances.

While Mayor Rahm Emanuel has chipped away at the pension problem, Chicago has come nowhere close to identifying a solution. The city must, at a bare minimum, contribute enough every year, including 2016, to ensure that the plans' funded ratio not drop below, and that their unfunded liabilities not exceed, 2015 levels.

Chicago-based veteran municipal analyst Peter Stettler has joined Piper Jaffray's strategic analytics team.

Illinois named 15 firms to the new senior manager underwriting pool it will use for negotiated bond sales over the next three years.