Indiana

CHICAGO — A month after winning city and county approval to sell its water and sewer system, Indianapolis stands poised to enter into a 50-year lease of its parking meters in exchange for cash and a piece of the annual parking revenue.

Gov. Mitch Daniels said Indiana's education budgets are likely to be spared additional cuts if revenues remain at their current levels. Late last year he ordered $300 million cut from the K-12 budget and $150 million from the higher-education budget to help offset declining revenues. The K-12 budget accounts for more than half of the state's general fund.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has tapped budget director Chris Ruhl as head of the state's Office of Management and Budget.

CHICAGO — Midwestern bond issuance leaped by 32.5% to $39.8 billion for the first six months of the year, due primarily to Illinois’ borrowing spree to finance its $31 billion capital program and its use of debt for budgetary relief.

CHICAGO — The Indianapolis-Marion County City County Council Monday night approved a high-profile plan to sell the city’s water and sewer systems to a local nonprofit utility.

CHICAGO — Indiana Treasurer Richard Murdock has tapped finance veteran Lisa Cottingham to serve as the new director of the Indiana Bond Bank, one of the state’s largest borrowers.

CHICAGO — Indiana drained nearly half of its prized $1.3 billion reserve fund last year to offset revenue collections that tumbled more than $1 billion below original budget projections.

CHICAGO — Indianapolis’ Capital Improvement Board will vote Friday on a plan to pay the Indiana Pacers $33.5 million over the next three years to keep the professional basketball team in town.

CHICAGO — Whiting, Ind., is selling $18.3 million of tax increment revenue bonds Thursday to finance a development on the city’s Lake Michigan lakefront.

CHICAGO — Indianapolis and the Indiana Pacers are expected to sign a short-term lease to keep the team in town as talks continue over whether the city will take over paying $18 million in annual operating costs at the Conseco Fieldhouse, which the team has previously paid.

CHICAGO — The Indianapolis Local Public Improvement Bond Bank will come to market next week with $21 million of economic development tax-increment financing bonds that will support a $340 million expansion of Dow AgroSciences LLC’s headquarters.

CHICAGO — The federal health care overhaul could cost Indiana up to $2.9 billion through 2020, a new report estimates.

The Indiana Finance Authority Wednesday will sell $20 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds on behalf of the National College Athletic Association.

CHICAGO — Evansville, Ind., will enter the market today with $115 million of taxable Build America Bonds to finance construction of a downtown arena meant to revitalize the city, a hub of southwest Indiana and northern Kentucky.

Indianapolis is likely to take over operations at the arenawhere the National Basketball Association’s Indiana Pacers play after the team said it can’t continue to cover annual operating costs.

CHICAGO — The Indianapolis market will gain six new public finance attorneys following the merger this month between Cleveland, Ohio-based law firm Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP and longtime local firm Dann Pecar Newman & Kleiman PC.

CHICAGO — The directors of two of Indiana’s largest borrowers have left for new jobs.

CHICAGO — The Indiana Finance Authority has advanced a pair of transactions that will launch the state’s first use of its $3.1 billion Midwestern disaster-area bond allocation to help redevelopment efforts following damaging storms two years ago.

CHICAGO — Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard yesterday announced that, pending approval by the city and Indiana, the city would sell its water and sewer systems to a nonprofit group for $425 million and the assumption of $1.5 billion in outstanding debt.

CHICAGO — Indiana would be allowed to privatize two of the state’s largest proposed infrastructure projects under a measure on its way to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’ desk.