Massachusetts

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.

Massachusetts hospitals and higher educational institutions could face higher borrowing costs in the future as the state plans to fold the Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority into the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is looking for underwriters to work on a potential refunding of $145 million of outstanding Western Turnpike debt.

Massachusetts voters in November have the option to slash the state’s sales tax rate to 3% from 6.25%.

WASHINGTON — Former Southwest Securities Inc. banker John F. Kendrick has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $10,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he willfully violated, and caused the firm to violate, Rule G-37 by making significant political contributions to Massachusetts Treasurer Timothy Cahill.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday signed into law a $27.6 billion fiscal 2011 budget as lawmakers continue to work on legislation that would restructure general obligation bonds to reduce fiscal 2011 debt-service costs. Fiscal 2011 begins today.

Morgan Stanley will pay $42.5 million to Massachusetts' pension funds and its general fund in a settlement agreement regarding the financing and securitization of subprime loans in the state.

Massachusetts legislators yesterday evening were set to pass a $27.9 billion fiscal 2011 budget plan that includes an anticipated debt restructuring to lower debt service costs next year.

The Internal Revenue Service has closed an audit of $119.2 million of student loan bonds issued by the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority with no change to the tax-exempt status of the debt.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation yesterday approved a $10.3 billion, five-year capital plan along with a $698 million operating budget for fiscal 2011.

Massachusetts on Wednesday announced plans beginning this week to issue its final fiscal 2010 new-money general obligation bond offering, $250 million of tax-exempts geared toward retail ­investors.