Illinois

Michael Melzer joined Nixon Peabody's Chicago office as a partner, bringing wide-ranging experience in public finance.

Illinois will sell $725 million of junior sales tax revenue bonds in a competitive deal pricing Tuesday. The Build Illinois bonds will fund capital projects.

Chicago's City Council on Wednesday approved the sale of $830 million of general obligation bonds that Mayor Brandon Johnson says will fund infrastructure improvements.

Illinois' Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for fiscal year 2023 recently passed the 600-day mark and is threatening to break California's lateness record.

Washington's threats to state and local government funding took center stage when Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker delivered his seventh budget.

In a first for the Midwest, a southern Illinois city plans to redevelop a mall using proceeds from sales tax and revenue bonds.

Former Women in Public Finance President, Illinois Finance Authority general counsel and Katten Muchin Rosenman partner Elizabeth Weber "was a class act all the way."

Charter schools drove the worst January ever for impairments since Municipal Market Analytics began tracking default trends, the firm said in a Feb. 5 report.

As Chicago Public Schools tries to get its fiscal house in order, it faces management turmoil, risks to federal funding and threatened immigration raids.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency downgraded Chicago's general obligation bonds to A-minus from A, citing high fixed costs and one-time fixes. The outlook is negative.

Chicago's Regional Transportation Authority released a plan calling for $1.5 billion in operating funding from state and local sources and more RTA control.

The Fed may make more cuts and there's a floor forming under the Treasury market, per panelists at the Executives' Club of Chicago's Annual Economic Outlook.

S&P Global Ratings downgraded Chicago's general obligation debt to BBB from BBB-plus, saying the 2025 budget fails to address a structural imbalance.

Tom Greene is retiring after 10 years at Wintrust Wealth Management. He left retirement to work for Wintrust; he also spent 40 years at William Blair and Co.

Multiple carbon capture projects are advancing across the Midwest, but the Trump administration may change the calculus around CCS and net zero goals.

The muni market saw $507.585 billion of debt issued in 2024, up 31.8% from $385.061 in 2023. This surpasses the previous record of $484.601 billion in 2020 by more than $20 billion, per LSEG data.

Moody's Ratings said the 2025 budget that passed Chicago's City Council this month won't materially alter the credit profile of the city, which it rates Baa3.

The Chicago Board of Education unanimously approved the firing of Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez late Friday during a heated special meeting.

Analysts warn the many one-time measures in the budget Mayor Brandon Johnson narrowly got through City Council will make the 2026 budget even harder.

Overall state and local government credit conditions will remain neutral, Fitch Ratings says, though some storm clouds may be on the horizon.