Illinois

Dolton's unfunded expenditures have soared since 2021, resulting in a negative $3.65 million balance in its general fund, Lori Lightfoot told village trustees.

Fitch upgraded Chicago's issuer default rating and GO debt rating to A-minus from BBB-plus and the city's sales tax securitization bonds to AAA from AA-plus.

The Chicago Public Schools board unanimously approved the district's 2025 budget Thursday, a day after the Civic Federation warned it is a "temporary solution."

First Eagle Investments has hired Purva Patel, based in Chicago, as managing director and senior investment specialist on its high-yield municipal credit team.

Chicago Transit Authority CFO and Treasurer Jeremy Fine is leaving the agency, CTA President Dorval Carter, Jr., announced.

Fiduciary responsibilities and politics are keeping the ESG debate alive in public finance.

Officials in East St. Louis, Illinois, sued the local police and firefighter pension boards and the state comptroller to block the use of an intercept law.

Detroit-based international law firm Miller Canfield has hired five public finance attorneys from Ice Miller. All five will join the firm's Chicago office.

Unfunded public pension liabilities have dropped more than 60%, or $3 trillion, from the peak in 2020, according to a new Moody's Ratings report.

Every state in the Midwest has clean water and drinking water financing programs. Those financing mechanisms may face greater strain in the years ahead.

Timothy McGregor has joined Chicago-based Riverbend Capital Advisors as managing partner. He will oversee the shaping and execution of investment strategies.

A half-billion dollars in grants are to be split by a dozen of the nearly 500 applicants for the tech hub program and 31 semifinalists.

The Illinois state comptroller reported a 55% year-over-year increase in the general revenue fund cash balance as her office closed fiscal 2024.

In the first half of 2024, winding-down federal aid, a resurgence of Build America Bond refundings and election uncertainty have contributed to the surge in issuance, said James Welch, a portfolio manager at Principal Asset Management.

Convention centers in Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis are being upgraded, although cost increases after the pandemic added challenges to some financings.

Louis English joined Janney Montgomery Scott as managing director and head of municipal sales in the fixed-income division, based out of the Chicago office.

J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday signed Illinois' $53.1 billion fiscal year 2025 budget, which includes $198 million for the rainy day fund, among other things.

The center, at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, added six people with municipal finance experience to its board of advisors.

Moody's Ratings analysts revised the outlook to stable from negative on the expectation that states and locals will fill an $8 billion operations funding gap.

May volume "surprised on the high end and it has been one of the fastest starts to the year historically," said James Pruskowski, chief investment officer at 16Rock Asset Management.