Illinois

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.

Moody's Investors Service slapped Burbank, Illinois with a downgrade and assigned a negative outlook to its A1 rating due to ongoing operating deficits and mounting pension woes.

Two Illinois based not-for-profit healthcare systems -- Northwestern Memorial Healthcare and Cadence Health – said they plan to complete their merger on Sept. 1.

The trustee on $20 million of unrated bonds issued for the bankrupt Leafs Hockey Club in suburban Chicago hopes to reach a debt restructuring deal with the club by early October but the two sides remain at loggerheads over the club's fiscal prospects.

Fitch Ratings shifted its outlook on O'Hare International Airport to stable from negative citing steady air traffic trends and more certainty over American Airlines' future at the airport after the airline's exit from bankruptcy.

Suburban Cook County, Illinois' public safety pension funds are straining under a collective $3.3 billion of unfunded liabilities, according to a recent report.

A group of ratepayers from a Chicago suburb are suing five advisors and consultants, accusing them of misrepresenting the value of participation in the bond-financed Prairie State Energy Campus to the city of Batavia.

Ratepayers from a Chicago suburb will file a lawsuit as soon as Tuesday seeking compensation for steep energy rate hikes they've paid due to cost overruns at the bond-financed Prairie State Energy Campus coal-fired power plant.

Loyola University Chicago has hired Robert A. Munson to serve as chief financial officer, filling a position being vacated by the retirement of Bill Laird after 11 years.

Illinois-based OSF Healthcare System's A3 rating is stabilizing due to recent operating improvements after a tough 2013, Moody's Investors Service said.

Standard & Poor's has revised its outlook on Springfield, Ill.'s City Water, Light & Power's electric revenue bonds to stable from negative.

Despite strong investment gains and other improvements, a persistent underlying weakness remained the underlying theme for the non profit health care sector in 2013, according to Standard & Poor's.

Borrowing by Midwest issuers slid 13.2% for the first half of 2014 but new-money issuance fueled by Chicago and Illinois deals helped boost new-money by 16.8%.

The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority said its recent $291 million refunding generated more than 5.47% of net present savings for $16 million in savings to ease its debt service burden going forward.