Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority will issue $150 million of senior revenue bonds this week to help finance water and sewer projects in the Boston area.

The Massachusetts Development Finance Agency this week will issue $353.4 million of tax-exempt and taxable debt on behalf of the Broad Institute Inc., a biomedical research facility, to help finance a new laboratory and building in Cambridge.

Boston Wednesday will sell $181.5 million of new-money and refunding general obligation debt via competitive bid, including $41.6 million of taxable qualified school construction bonds.

A Boston hotel project failed to make an interest payment of $297,600 on March 1 to bondholders of Series 2002 Crosstown Center Project subordinate revenue bonds.

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded $764 million of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority assessment bonds Thursday to Aa1 from Aaa to reflect the credit rating agency’s pool financing methodology.

Standard & Poor’s revised Massachusetts’ outlook to positive from stable Monday based on strong management practices as the state prepares $146.3 million of SIFMA-index refunding bonds.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick Wednesday released a $30.5 billion fiscal 2012 spending plan with $570 million less spending than the current fiscal year’s operating budget.

The Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly is seeking documents from the Massachusetts’ Treasury Department in reference to its relationship with Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Massachusetts estimates that it will collect $20.51 billion of tax revenue in fiscal 2012, about $740 million more than the projected revenue for fiscal 2011, as Gov. Deval Patrick Tuesday announced pension-reform initiatives.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is considering leveraging future parking revenues through a proposed nonprofit entity to generate up to $325 million and help pay down outstanding debt.

The Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency is looking to update its pool of underwriters to work on single- and multi-family bond transactions.

Massachusetts Wednesday will sell its first-ever Commonwealth Transportation Fund bond offering — $576.2 million of taxable debt to repair decrepit bridges.

Massachusetts next week plans its first-ever bond sale from the Commonwealth Transportation Fund, a new credit that grabbed triple-A ratings last week from Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s.

The Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corp. this week will sell $66.3 million of revenue bonds, including Build America Bonds, to help finance a wind power project in western Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is set to issue $263 million of sales-tax debt this week or next to help finance capital projects and restructure existing debt for immediate savings.

The nation's first offshore wind farm — to be located in Nantucket Sound — secured its first customer last week as National Grid will purchase 50% of the project's energy production.

Moody's Investors Service Monday downgraded Lowell General Hospital in Massachusetts to Baa1 from A3 as the health care provider plans to increase its debt load dramatically to help finance a new patient tower. The outlook is stable.

When Massachusetts issued its first-ever taxable general obligation Build America Bond deal in December it did so in a negotiated transaction and paid a premium to Treasuries of 120 basis points for 30-year debt.

Massachusetts is set Wednesday to issue via competitive bid $358 million of taxable general obligation Build America Bonds and $1.2 billion of tax-exempt GO revenue anticipation notes.

States and municipalities in the Northeast sold $58.9 billion of debt in 1,062 issues during the first six months of 2010, eking out a 2% increase over the first half of 2009.