Illinois

Chicago will bolster its police ranks as part of a broader plan aimed at reining in a skyrocketing homicide rate that some believe threatens to undercut the city’s recent fiscal progress.

The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy’s municipal finance center is offering grants for academic research projects on topics that range from public sector pensions and bond financing to infrastructure, taxation, and the politics of public finance.

Chicago’s proposed fix for its troubled municipal employees’ pension fund offers a better solution than a restructuring backed by the fund’s managers, say Chicago’s finance chiefs.

Chicago Public Schools closed on $325 million of short-term borrowing earlier this month and plans a $150 million draw next month from new credit lines to manage its precarious liquidity.

Northwestern Memorial Healthcare and University of Chicago Medical Center are planning deals totaling about $425 million following Illinois Finance Authority approval.

While the Chicago and Illinois credits both remain tainted by their pension and budget ills, their paths have diverged and Chicago is looking better, Nuveen Asset Management says in a new report.

The University of Illinois is preparing to refund $116 million while highlighting for investors what it describes as diverse revenues and growing enrollment that have lessened the strains of coping with the state’s budget mess.

The Chicago City Council signed off Wednesday on up to $3.5 billion of O’Hare International Airport borrowing and a new water/sewer tax to help rescue the city’s largest pension fund from looming insolvency.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic returns to the market Wednesday to take advantage of low interest rates to shed some of its floating-rate exposure.

Underwriters, advisors, and lawyers working on Chicago’s bond deals must come to City Council finance committee meetings prepared to take the “hot seat” and defend their firms’ ethnic, racial, and gender diversity.

The Chicago City Council will vote Wednesday on $3.5 billion of airport borrowing.

Restructuring the debt of Chicago and Illinois would entail about two years of unpleasant headlines, but the city and the state will rebound far sooner and less painfully than if they stay on their current paths.

Chicago's plan to rescue its largest pension fund with the help of a new water and sewer tax cleared a City Council committee despite complaints about the tax’s impact and concerns it doesn’t fully solve the fund’s crisis.

Veteran Chicago-based public finance tax specialist Scott Bremer has joined The Hardwick Law Firm LLC, a hire the minority-owned hopes will bolster its market position in Illinois and beyond.

DuPage County, Illinois lost a triple-A rating because of its limited revenue flexibility and growth prospects that are now given greater weight under revised rating criteria.

Illinois’ failure to pass a full budget for a second consecutive fiscal year is likely to widen the state’s operating fund deficit and exacerbate liquidity pressure on the state’ credit position, says Moody’s Investors Service.

Chicago got its first good rating news after announcing funding plans for the city's municipal and laborers pension funds, as Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on the city's rating to stable from negative.

CHICAGO – Illinois' largest retirement fund voted to lower its assumed investment return rate to 7% from 7.5%, a move that Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration had warned would have a "devastating" impact on funding for social services and education.

Illinois’ budget crisis and political gridlock have taken a toll on the state’s public colleges and universities, S&P Global Ratings said in a report recapping the credit erosion and warning of a tough road ahead for the schools.

The Illinois Finance Authority heads into the market Tuesday with $500 million of top-rated state revolving fund bonds to pave the way for more low cost loans for local clean water and drinking water projects.