Illinois

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority has expanded conduit powers to issue debt on behalf of nonprofits for projects outside state borders under legislation signed this week by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn.

CHICAGO — Illinois closed the books on fiscal 2010 last week in the “worst fiscal position in its history,” with a record $4.7 billion in unpaid bills as floundering revenues failed to cover spending, Comptroller Dan Hynes reported in his quarterly overview of the state’s fiscal condition.

CHICAGO — Illinois’ triple-A rated Lake County Forest Preserve District Thursday will competitively sell $40 million of taxable general obligation Build America Bonds.

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn Thursday signed a fiscal 2011 budget that deals with the state’s $12 billion deficit through $1.4 billion in cuts, borrowing and other one-time maneuvers and leaves $6 billion of bills unpaid.

CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools treasurer David Bryant is among several members of the system’s Treasury Department who were claimed by layoffs announced this week to help trim labor costs.

CHICAGO — With Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn poised to sign the fiscal 2011 budget today amid a drumbeat of negative financial news, experts recently offered suggestions for tackling the state’s budget crisis that range from expanding the sales tax base to creating a ­fiscal watchdog commission.

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn late last week signed controversial legislation that creates a pilot sales tax and revenue bond program to aid a proposed $378 million retail and entertainment complex in the struggling downstate city of Marion.

CHICAGO — The Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois board yesterday approved a $140 million taxable working cash-flow note issue that will help the agency keep Chicago-area buses and trains in service as it awaits its overdue state aid.

CHICAGO — Illinois’ debt manager returns tomorrow from an overseas tour where he sought to whet the appetites of European and Asian institutional buyers for his beleaguered state’s paper ahead of a $900 million taxable Build America Bond sale.

CHICAGO — Prosecutors in the federal corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich sought in testimony this week to link a loan to businessman Joseph Aramanda from consultant Robert Kjellander to an alleged scheme by Blagojevich and three associates to personally profit from the state’s $10 billion pension bond sale.

CHICAGO — Illinois’ state universities should have sufficient liquidity to meet their fiscal obligations, at least through November, under a newly approved power to borrow against late state payments and an infusion of tuition revenue expected in late August, Moody’s Investors Service reported in its latest credit outlook.

CHICAGO — The Chicago Board of Education yesterday voted during an emergency meeting to authorize the establishment of an $800 million line of credit to boost its liquidity as it grapples with late aid payments and uncertainty over state funding levels in fiscal 2011.

CHICAGO — Illinois’ general obligation rating slid further down the scale on Friday when Fitch Ratings downgraded the state to A from A-plus, blaming leaders’ failure to tackle the state’s fiscal and liquidity crisis in the next budget.

CHICAGO — Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and several associates expected to reap $500,000 from an $809,000 consultant’s fee paid by Bear, Stearns & Co. for its role as book-runner on the state’s $10 billion 2003 pension bond sale, an aide said in testimony this week during the disgraced ex-governor’s federal corruption trial.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority board this week gave final approval to deals for OSF Healthcare System and NorthShore University Health System that will raise new money for each and shift outstanding variable-rate debt to fixed rate to reduce market and liquidity risks.

CHICAGO — The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority will enter the market as soon as tomorrow with roughly $400 million of fixed-rate refunding bonds, the first of two sales planned this year to restructure a chunk of the agency’s synthetically fixed-rate debt to reduce bank and liquidity risks.

CHICAGO — Gov. Pat Quinn yesterday signed legislation that allows Illinois’ nine public universities to issue short-term debt in anticipation of state aid to help the schools manage through the state’s chronic payment delays.

CHICAGO — Cook County, Ill., on Wednesday and Thursday will price $1.05 billion of new-money and refunding bonds divided into five series in a transaction that likely marks the last issue under county board president Todd Stroger’s watch.

CHICAGO — Fitch Ratings’ Chicago-based lead Midwestern analyst of tax-supported government credits, Melanie Jopek Shaker, resigned last week to take a newly created position with the fiscally stressed Chicago Public Schools as its deputy chief financial officer.

CHICAGO — For Illinois, Build America Bonds are the gift that keeps on giving despite heightened federal scrutiny, the state’s debt manager said last week.