Illinois

Cook County commissioners Tuesday gave the administration the green light to issue up to $100 million of sales-tax backed bonds, a first-of-its-kind deal for the nation's second-largest county.

Illinois collected about $576 million more in fiscal 2012 than earlier predicted, the Illinois Commission on Forecasting and Accountability reported in its review of fiscal year-end results.

Moody's Investors Service said this week Chrysler's improved performance and production at its Belvidere plant in the Rockford, Ill., metropolitan region is a credit positive for the area.

The Government Finance Officers Association gave its annual Distinguished Budget Presentation award to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

Moody's knocked $6.5 billion of Chicago O'Hare international Airport general airport revenue bonds down one notch due to the airport's high leverage, narrow financial margins, and economic and construction risks tied to its ongoing $8 billion expansion.

The recently approved Chicago Infrastructure Trust won't replace long-term debt financing, but will allow the city to avoid the controversial act of privatizing public infrastructure, Mayor Rahm Emanuel told guests at a Washington D.C. think tank on Friday.

The Chicago region could unsnarl its traffic mess and generate $2 billion in economic activity by 2040 by undertaking 11 major road construction projects with a $52 billion price tag paid for with new toll and user fees, according to a report from the California think tank the Reason Foundation.

The former - and first - head of the Illinois Finance Authority Ali Ata received probation from a federal judge this week for his role in a state public corruption scandal that eventually landed former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in prison.

Moody's Investors Service earlier this month downgraded Chicago's $578 million of sales tax-backed bonds to Aa3 from Aa2, due primarily to a lack of legal separation between the pledged sales tax revenues and the city's general operations.

Fitch Ratings raised the Rush University Medical Center Obligated Group one notch to A in recognition of its consistently strong profitability and the completion of its new patient tower, eliminating construction risks on the credit.

Rising tax revenues helped Illinois chip away at the unpaid obligations on its books going into the new fiscal year July 1 but the number remained at a staggering $7.5 billion to $8 billion, Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka reports.

Illinois-based Hospital Sisters Services, Inc. is gearing up to sell more than $400 million of new-money and refunding bonds this fall as it undertakes various upgrades to existing facilities and opens a replacement critical access hospital.

With a $500 million new-money issue in the works, Moody's Investors slapped the Chicago Public Schools with a downgrade and warned of further negative action due to mounting fiscal challenges and the district's plan to dig deeply into reserves as a budget fix.

A retired state judge has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a new Illinois law that overhauls the state's retiree healthcare program and shifting more of the funding burden for premiums to beneficiaries.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed several pieces of legislation authorizing $1.6 billion in new state borrowing to finance transportation and transit projects and extending an increase in the Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois' working cash notes limits.

Top Illinois finance officials are on the road to sell institutional investors on the tidy structure of the state's sale issue next week of $1.5 billion of double-A rated unemployment bonds that are insulated against the state's well-publicized liquidity and budget struggles.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has submitted his nominations for the new Chicago Infrastructure Trust to the City Council.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle announced that $33 million in savings were achieved in the first year of collaboration on some services and initiatives.

The financially-strapped Chicago Public Schools system released a $5.2 billion proposed budget for fiscal 2013 that closes a $665 million gap with a property tax hike, operating cuts, and by digging deeply into reserves and draining its unreserved fund balance.

The Lombard, Ill. Public Facilities Corp. drew $1.8 million from reserves to cover debt-service owed this month on $190 million of hotel and conference center debt.