Illinois

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.

Moments after Janney Capital Markets cited "cracks" in the foundation of state credit quality nationwide, Pennsylvania said it would have to loan money to itself to keep running.

Chicago is readying a $300 million sale for Tuesday to finance ongoing projects in a 10-year program supported by big rate hikes.

Standard & Poor's has put the ratings of two double-A level not-for-profit health systems in Illinois, Advocate and NorthShore, on Credit Watch with positive credit implications following their announcement to join forces.

The underfunding of public pensions by Chicago and Illinois puts much bigger burdens on their balance sheets than what national counterparts face, Moody's Investors Service says.

IIlinois' pension funds failed in three of the previous 10 years to earn sufficient returns to make the arbitrage play on work in the state's favor on its $10 billion general obligation pension bond issue from 2003.

Standard & Poor's lowered by two levels its rating on LaSalle, Illinois’ general obligation rating to reflect it revised rating criteria and its negative fund balance.

McGuire Woods LLP has hired Kay McNab, a municipal finance and bank lending legal specialist, to bolster its Midwestern public finance and banking businesses.

Chicago is readying about $700 million of water and wastewater revenue bonds for sale, pressing with investors the credits' mostly double-A level ratings that's distinct from its battered general obligation standing.

The trustee on $8.5 million of revenue bonds issued to finance a wastewater treatment facility to support a now bankrupt meat processing company in a Chicago suburb has struck a deal to sell the bond-financed assets at a steep discount to the company that's taken over the bankrupt firm.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing bonds issued in 2011 for a charter school operator in Chicago that settled securities fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June.