Illinois

CHICAGO — The University of Chicago Medical Center will enter the market with $182 million of debt beginning next week to wrap up its planned borrowing for a new hospital pavilion that will house its complex-care services.

CHICAGO — Illinois could end the fiscal year owing more than $8 billion in bills, a level that underscores the need to cut spending in order to stabilize its balance sheet, Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka warned Wednesday.

CHICAGO — The political landscape of fiscally stressed governments is an increasingly important factor as analysts assess a credit’s risk, a panel of municipal analysts said in here last week.

CHICAGO — Warning of the threat posed to its long-term fiscal stability, the Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois is leading a charge against state legislation that would aid retailers and other businesses seeking to avoid paying some local sales taxes by setting up shell offices elsewhere.

CHICAGO — The Lombard Public Facilities Corp. in Illinois has extended until Thursday its tender invitation to holders of $144 million of revenue bonds issued to help finance its hotel and conference center.

CHICAGO — Philadelphia-based PNC Capital Markets LLC has hired Kevin Hoecker from Chicago-based financial advisory firm Scott Balice Strategies LLC to lead its push for a bigger chunk of business from Illinois borrowers and their neighbors.

With an airline lawsuit behind it and structural tinkering completed, Chicago will enter the market this week with $1.1 billion of mostly new-money revenue bonds to finance the next phase of projects under an $8 billion expansion program at O'Hare International Airport.

CHICAGO — Drawing deeply from the public finance industry well, Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday announced a finance team led by advisory professional Lois Scott and supported by a project finance lawyer and public sector banker, both with previous government experience.

CHICAGO — Two senior staff members of the Illinois Housing Development Authority have moved into leadership roles, with longtime general counsel Mary Kenney taking over as executive director, and deputy chief financial officer Hazim Taib replacing Robert Kugel in the agency’s top fiscal post.

CHICAGO — Chicago-based financial adviser Lois Scott — a co-founder of Scott Balice Strategies LLC — will leave the firm to join Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel’s administration as the city’s top fiscal officer when he takes office next month, several public finance sources said Monday.

Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel on Monday tapped the head of the Rochester City School District to lead the Chicago Public Schools and left in place the current chief financial officer, Diana Ferguson.

CHICAGO — Jury selection will begin Wednesday in the retrial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on federal corruption and pay-to-play charges following a judge’s refusal last week to grant the defense’s request for a delay.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority expects to launch a program in the coming months that links state Medicaid providers with private investors willing to purchase overdue payment vouchers in case lawmakers fail to act on Gov. Pat Quinn’s $2 billion borrowing plan to ease the state’s liquidity crisis.

CHICAGO — Fitch Ratings affirmed O’Hare International Airport’s third-lien general airport revenue bond rating and raised its passenger facility charge-backed credit as Chicago prepares to enter the market next week with $1.1 billion of airport bonds.

CHICAGO — The Urbana, Ill.-based health care provider Carle Foundation is set to enter the market later this month with $230 million of new-money debt, and will privately place another $100 million of bonds with two banks in a structure that lowers borrowing costs and limits liquidity risks.

CHICAGO — The Lombard Public Facilities Corp. in Illinois has extended to April 14 its tender invitation to holders of $144 million of revenue bonds issued to help finance its hotel and conference center to give bondholders more time to review its restructuring proposal.

CHICAGO — A Chicago suburb that gambled on a hotel and conference center is now asking some bondholders to take a haircut under a restructuring plan that also raises its own financial risk in the struggling project.

The Illinois Health Services and Facilities Review Board last week advanced Central DuPage Health and Delnor Health System’s merger plans by approving an ownership change.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin last week announced a $685 million agreement that advances plans for a high-speed rail network between Chicago and St. Louis.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners tapped a new interim chief for the health and hospital system after the unexpected resignation of two-year chief financial officer William Foley last week.