Illinois

Standard & Poor’s said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's recently adopted tax hike to fund pensions is just one step in the city's long road to financial stability.

Illinois local governments, especially school districts, are faring better than their Pennsylvania counterparts during their respective state’s budget impasse, Moody’s Investors Service says.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2016 budget and record property tax hike to pay for public safety pensions easily cleared the City Council Wednesday.

Chicago City Council members cast their vote Wednesday on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s nearly $8 billion 2016 budget that relies on a record property tax hike billed as the needed fix for the city’s pension mess that’s behind its plummeting credit.

Despite last week’s downgrades, Illinois’ general obligation paper fares better than New Jersey for relative credit risk, Municipal Market Analytics said in a commentary comparing the two lowest-rated states.

Six of Illinois’ eight public universities took a fresh credit blow from Moody’s Investors Service with downgrades stemming from exposure to the state’s fiscal strains and its budget crisis.

The Chicago Park District’s AA-plus Standard & Poor's rating won’t change solely because of a new legal challenge launched against its pension reforms.

Illinois took its second credit blow this week when Moody’s Investors Service dropped the state’s general obligation debt into the triple-B category Thursday as the state’s prospects for tackling its budget and pension mess dim amid the four-month-old budget stalemate.

Moody's Investors Service said it has downgraded the state of Illinois' $26.8 billion of general obligation bonds to Baa1 from A3, while also lowering ratings on the state's sales-tax (Build Illinois) bonds to Baa1 from A3, and on the state's subject to appropriation bonds (issued by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and for the state's Civic Center program) to Baa2 from Baa1.

With the Illinois state budget impasse blocking only a limited number of revenue sources, most local governments in the state should be able to get by without an immediate ratings impact bond structures that include covered abatements and adequate liquidity and reserves.

Investors should brace for further deterioration of Illinois’ already battered bond ratings after this week’s Fitch Ratings downgrade.

Fitch Ratings downgraded Illinois one notch to BBB-plus.

Illinois’ deferral of its November pension contribution over a cash flow crunch is a negative credit factor, said Moody’s Investors Service.

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s strong financials and independent governance are key strengths that have staved off the credit hits suffered by Chicago and other local governments, says Moody’s Investors Service.

Investors squeezed a more modest penalty out of Chicago on a recent $419 million wastewater revenue bond deal than they have demanded on its general obligation paper, market participants said.

Arguing a recent 1 cent sales tax hike isn’t enough to solve Cook County, Ill.’s budget and pension strains, board President Toni Preckwinkle’s proposed 2016 budget relies on a mix of spending cuts and new tax revenue to close a $199 million gap.

Raymond James has hired Jack Dudick in the firm’s Healthcare Finance group in Chicago.

Illinois is so short on cash that it won’t make its $560 million monthly pension fund payment next month and could also skip its December payment, state Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger announced Wednesday.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed 2016 budget and record property tax hike plan won the Chicago Civic Federation’s endorsement, with a warning that more pain may be needed to fully stabilize the city’s fiscal condition.

Chicago heads into the market Wednesday with $440 million of second lien wastewater revenue debt that moves the city closer to putting behind it the $2.2 billion liquidity headache triggered by rating downgrades.