Illinois

Cook County, local governments, transit agencies, and the education and hospital sectors all benefit from bills passed by Illinois lawmakers.

"We are looking for parity with what's in Joliet contract. That is what would successfully allow us to work with the city of Chicago and that would make that alternative the preferred alternative over a new source water project," the commission's Paul May said.

To date, 332 of the 357 funds have transferred approximately $9.1 billion in assets to the consolidated fund, with most holdouts participating in the lawsuit.

All constitutional options need to be on the table, state Sen. Robert Martwick said, including fund consolidation, pension obligation bonds, new taxes and more.

"It's positive to see the proposed budget relies on fairly conservative revenue assumptions and provides additional funding for pensions and education," Molly Shellhorn, senior research analyst for municipals at Nuveen said.

A top advisor to Brandon Johnson said his administration is still waiting on the advice of incoming CFO Jill Jaworski and budget director Annette Guzman.

Inflation joined supply chain struggles, wage pressures, and the labor shortage — most acutely felt with nursing staff — dragging down the sector's margins.

With hotel taxes unlikely to keep pace with debt service , the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority is eyeing a restructuring to extend final bond maturity.

The CTA is looking for the state to boost operating funds to help solve a looming $400 million annual shortfall.

Harvey and its advisors are in the process of notifying holders of its defaulted 2002 and 2007 bonds of its upcoming exchange offer.

The legislation impacts Chicago fire pensions, but it's stirring debate over costly fixes needed statewide to avoid running afoul of Social Security rules.

Illinois trimmed revenue estimates for the current fiscal year and must absorb higher social services expenses next year leaving less budget room to maneuver.

The choice of PFM's Jill Jaworski for the CFO position drew praise from the outgoing CFO and market participants who are watching closely to see whether the city stays on track with fiscal progress that has drawn more than a dozen rating upgrades across credits.

Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson hopes to make an announcement on the CFO post before taking office Monday.

Legislation making its way through the state legislature enhances pension benefits for Tier 2 Chicago firefighters but the Civic Federation is urging lawmakers to slow down.

"When the rating agencies developed and rolled out their ESG scores, they said their ESG scores would not impact an issuer's credit rating. We are holding them to their word," said Ben Watkins, director of the state Division of Bond Finance.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott traded barbs over the flow of migrants as the city has been overwhelmed since Texas began sending them on to Chicago last August.

The city is offering more than $1 billion of debt under its higher-rated Sales Tax Securitization Corp., and its water and wastewater revenue credits.

Transition committee members include several names familiar to the public finance community including Martin Cabrera, head of Cabrera Capital Markets, a majority Latino-owned investment banking firm, and Richard Price, executive chairman of Mesirow, which also does public finance banking.

While the system took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, total traffic hit 94% of pre-pandemic levels in 2022. Traffic for the first two months of 2023 was 99% of levels in the same period of 2019.