Illinois

Moody's Investors Service has hit the Rock Island County Forest Preserve District in Illinois with a triple-notch downgrade and warning that further action could loom over its fiscal challenges.

The transit agency that provides commuter rail in the Chicago region could soon join the ranks of tax-exempt borrowers under a proposed $2.4 billion, 10-year capital program that relies on about $400 million of financing.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's administration says its plan to build a $1.5 billion privately financed toll road in partnership with Indiana remains on track with the endorsement of a key Chicago area planning committee.

Illinois' fiscal 2015 budget reverses course on recent strides, relying on fiscally harmful practices like borrowing to cover operations and shorting known expenses, a local government review group warns in its new review of the spending plan.

Cook County, Ill. Board President Toni Preckwinkle Thursday unveiled a nearly $4 billion2015 budget for the nation's second-largest county, home of Chicago, that relies heavily on the new federal health care law to close a projected $169 million budget gap.

The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago said it plans an initiative to promote a dialogue on the consequences should the Illinois Supreme Court overturn pension reforms adopted last year.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Public Schools plan to expand early childhood education programs through a $17 million Social Impact Bond.

A new quantitative fiscal review of four Chicago charter schools and networks ranks two as financially healthy while the other two face negative trends that could hinder their long term prospects.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel vowed not to raise property, sales, or gasoline taxes to help erase $297 million of red ink in his proposed 2015 budget, set to be unveiled later this month.

Chicago-based William Blair & Co. is making a big push into the Texas market, snaring a five-member banking team from Robert W. Baird & Co. led by Ajay Thomas who will take over the firm's public finance banking group and help guide a national expansion.

The per capita tab to cover local and state unfunded pension liabilities has grown to nearly $20,000 for a Chicago resident based on 2012 results, according to an annual report on Chicago area pension funds from the Civic Federation of Chicago.

Using language Mayor Rahm Emanuel is unlikely to replicate in campaign brochures, Chicago's latest bond documents lay out for investors in stark terms the risks posed by its steep credit deterioration and hazards should it slip further.

Residential property tax rates in Chicago have risen by more than 30% over the last decade, with other selected Cook County communities reviewed by the Civic Federation of Chicago experiencing increases of at least 55%.

Chicago officials said the city's O'Hare International Airport is on pace to reclaim the title of the world's busiest airport by flights, a title it ceded a decade ago to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Memorial Airport.

Batavia, Ill., officials plan to ask the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office to examine the city's 2007 decision to purchase power from the controversial bond-financed, coal-fired Prairie State Energy Campus.

Illinois-based Presence Health has finalized a deal to sell one of its Chicago hospitals that has strained the system's books with losses.

After years of struggling to fill its halls, a student housing facility privately developed for Chicago's DePaul University is marking its second year of near full occupancy with the boost in revenues allowing it to chip away at some overdue debt service.

Moody's Investors Service has affirmed Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History's A2 rating as the museum seeks to improve its balance sheet through an ongoing restructuring and plans to expand its capital campaign.

Chicago-based Mesirow Financial has hired veteran bond underwriter Stephen "Jay" Murphy to bolster its municipal desk.

Standard & Poor's dropped Morrison, Ill.'s limited-tax GO debt certificates three notches to the lowest investment grade level of BBB-minus and its issuer credit rating to BBB due to its ongoing fiscal challenges.