Indiana

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard last week announced a plan to build a $15 million parking garage financed in part with proceeds from the $20 million the city received by leasing its parking meters for 50 years. The city last week announced the selection of a developer and operator of the new mixed-use parking development. The lot will have 350 spaces, retail space, and a police substation.

Standard & Poor's last week affirmed the state's prized AAA rating, and fiscal officials announced that recent revenue figures continue to exceed expectations. A new national report, meanwhile, notes that the Hoosier State's economy saw the third-largest growth rate last year, driven by a recovery in manufacturing.

CHICAGO — Indiana’s Purdue University, one of the nation’s few higher education institutions with a triple-A rating, will price $45 million of refunding student facility system revenue bonds Tuesday.

CHICAGO — The Gary school district is warning that Indiana’s refusal to allow the district to levy a new tax for debt service payments will lead to teacher layoffs and other classroom cuts.

CHICAGO — Indiana legislators last week passed a $28 billion two-year general fund budget and several bond-related bills but failed to pass a controversial measure allowing fiscally distressed municipalities to file for bankruptcy.

Indiana lawmakers will debate whether to allow municipalities to enter into bankruptcy as they hammer out final differences to a bill passed by both chambers but stripped of the Chapter 9 option by the House.

CHICAGO — Indiana University Health Inc., the state’s largest health care system, on Monday will price $228.2 million of variable-rate bonds in the first of three borrowings that will total nearly $800 million.

CHICAGO — Indianapolis is set to come to market in the next few weeks with $58 million of water bonds even as it enters the final stages of selling its system to a nonprofit private utility.

CHICAGO — Indiana’s governor would have sole power to create new toll roads and enter into public-private partnerships for highway projects under a bill already passed by the Senate and expected to be considered by a House subcommittee as early as Wednesday.

CHICAGO — Indiana is considering increasing its pension contribution levels over the next two years to bolster the funded ratios of state-supported pension plans to past high levels that were considered a top credit strength for the triple-A rated state.

CHICAGO — Moody’s Investors Service Tuesday downgraded its long-term rating on DePauw University to A3 from A2, warning that the small Indiana liberal arts school suffers from deeply imbalanced operations.

CHICAGO — Whiting, Ind., will remarket $200 million of environmental facility revenue bonds as early as Tuesday on behalf of BP Products North America Inc., which operates its second-largest refinery in the northwest Indiana town.

CHICAGO — Indianapolis will head to market next week with $98 million of debt that taps the Midwestern disaster-area bond program to finance a new private development to benefit Eli Lilly and Co. — a project officials say will transform the city’s central downtown business district.

Officials from Porter County said they will consider filing a new lawsuit with the Indiana Supreme Court after the state Court of Appeals last week declared the county could not withdraw from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

CHICAGO — Bondholders owed more than $50 million by an Indiana hospital in receivership would receive a mere $3 million or less under a proposed sale of the facility’s most valuable assets.

Indiana would prohibit bond issuers from hedging more than 20% of their outstanding debt in a bill that passed the state Senate Tuesday and now heads to the House.

A committee of the Indianapolis Marion County City-County Council Wednesday approved Mayor Greg Ballard's plan to issue up to $98 million of bonds to support construction of a new Eli Lilly & Co. campus. The full council will consider the measure Feb. 28.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A plan to cut $500 million of costs from the $4.1 billion Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project has triggered the need for additional federal environmental studies.

CHICAGO — The Indiana Senate could vote as early as Tuesday on a bill that would allow fiscally distressed cities and towns to file for bankruptcy.

CHICAGO — Indianapolis hopes to start reaping the benefits this year of a $1 billion downtown development that features an expanded Indiana Convention Center connected to a new football stadium and the world’s largest Marriott hotel complex.