Illinois

The $1.3 billion sweep of non general fund accounts to help close a shortfall in Illinois' current budget drew $300 from key transportation funds used to pay for capital projects and cover debt service, according to a report from a local government watchdog organization.

Underwriters and investors in billions of dollars in debt sold to finance the Prairie State coal-fired energy plant should come together to discuss relief for local municipalities burdened by the plant’s higher energy costs, according to an environmental group.

Moody’s investors Service socked a struggling Illinois school district with a four-notch downgrade, putting on the lowest investment grade run and warning that a drop to junk could loom.

With the election now behind him, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel needs to make quick headway on solving the city's severe pension and budget woes if he hopes to avoid a rating downgrade, Standard & Poor's warned Thursday.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has little time to savor his election victory as the city and the municipal market look for solutions to the city's daunting financial problems.

Counterparty Wells Fargo has so far refused to lower the rating threshold for three Chicago swaps that reached termination events through recent downgrades, a source said.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel won a second term Tuesday, fending off rival Jesus "Chuy" Garcia after casting him as ill-prepared to tackle the city's deep fiscal woes. Emanuel took 56% of the vote compared to Garcia's 44%.

As cash-strapped governments like Illinois and Chicago eye non-traditional revenues like gambling and marijuana, economists and government officials warned that so-called sin taxes are no panacea for budget shortfalls.

Moody's Investors Service April 6 stripped Illinois' North Chicago School District No. 187 of its investment grade rating as the district struggles with property tax valuation declines and operating deficits.

Chicago voters head to the polls to pick their next mayor Tuesday after a seven-week runoff contest where the city's fiscal ills have taken center stage in an election in which neither candidate is willing to talk about property tax increases.

The Chicago Board of Education will return to the market on April 21 with the second phase of a planned borrowing that was delayed by a stinging round of downgrades and headline risks over the mayoral run-off.

Struggling Illinois local governments should have the option of municipal bankruptcy, one mayor told lawmakers during the first airing of legislation that would add Chapter 9 to the state's statutes.

Municipal market observers aren’t impressed by the Chicago Public Schools’ move to drop Moody’s Investors Service in favor of an agency that assigned a higher rating.

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the Chicago-area Forest Park Park District two notches to Baa1, assigning a negative outlook.

Standard & Poor's raised its rating on Silver Cross Hospital in Illinois by one level to BBB as it prepares to pull its rating at the hospital's request.

Moody’s Investors Service said it considers Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s appointment of a task force to look at local government consolidation and overhauling unfunded mandates to be a positive credit measure

The Illinois Municipal Electric Agency heads into the market as soon as Tuesday with a $585 million revenue bond issue that will refund debt sold to help finance its participation in the controversial Prairie State coal-fired project and for an ownership stake in a Kentucky-based coal plant.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation Thursday to fill a $1.6 billion gap in the state's current-year budget largely with a one-time funding fix.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said he was sign “as quickly as possible” legislation that fixes a $1.6 billion hole in the current budget with a one-time funding fix.

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago won an upgrade from Standard & Poor’s as it fiscal books remain on the upswing.