Michigan

CHICAGO — Junk-rated Detroit will turn to Michigan for help in issuing up to $100 million of general obligation bonds to finance the purchase and renovation of a former MGM Grand casino into a new police headquarters.

The Detroit Economic Development Corp. last week approved an inducement resolution to issue $15 million of recovery zone facility bonds to finance construction of a new medical office building in the city.

CHICAGO — The Detroit City Council heard testimony but did not vote Tuesday on a measure that would ask voters whether they want to abolish the Detroit Public School Board and place the troubled school system under mayoral control.

CHICAGO — Detroit Public Schools is facing a $363 million structural deficit — with officials warning it could get worse — as the district begins a new fiscal year today.

CHICAGO — Michigan lawmakers will fail to meet their self-imposed deadline of July 1 to complete a fiscal 2011 budget.

CHICAGO — Local units of government in Michigan grappling with falling revenue from state aid and local property tax collections will soon have a place to turn for help in undertaking cost-saving consolidation efforts.

CHICAGO — In its first meeting after the consolidation of 10 state bond-issuing authorities into a single agency, the newly formed Michigan Finance Authority board approved a pair of transactions and acted on administrative matters.

CHICAGO — The Oakland County Economic Development Corp. will price $28 million of recovery zone facility bonds — most of which will be privately placed — to finance a new film studio in an abandoned General Motors Corp. plant in Pontiac, Mich.

CHICAGO — The worst could be over for Michigan, according to economists and fiscal officials who gathered in Lansing Friday for the state’s twice-annual revenue estimating conference.

CHICAGO — The Michigan House is expected to vote Tuesday on a bill that would advance a controversial $2 billion bond-funded bridge spanning the busy Detroit-Canada trade route.

Michigan State University today will price $229 million of general revenue bonds to refund outstanding variable-rate debt and commercial paper and pay termination fees related to interest rate swaps.

Michigan would see a relatively minor impact on its fiscal position as a result of the new federal health care law, according to an analysis by the Legislature’s Senate Fiscal Agency.

CHICAGO — Michigan State University on Thursday will price $205 million of 40-year taxable Build America Bonds for capital projects. The school in May expects to offer a pair of refunding transactions that will restructure some of its variable-rate demand bonds and refund outstanding commercial paper.

CHICAGO — Detroit Mayor Dave Bing yesterday unveiled a much-anticipated 2011 budget proposal that relies on a series of relatively modest spending cuts to whittle down the deficit while putting on hold bold initiatives to securitize assets to raise new money.

CHICAGO — Henry Ford Health System could spend up to $1 billion in a massive expansion plan that would include a $500 million investment in its flagship Detroit facility, the provider said this week.

CHICAGO — The Detroit City Council Tuesday voted against Michigan legislation that would dissolve the city’s two main pension fund boards and transfer management of the two funds to a nonprofit group in Lansing.

CHICAGO — The Michigan Municipal Bond Authority is expected to enter the market today with $255 million of notes to help cover Detroit Public Schools’ anticipated fiscal 2010 cash shortfall.

CHICAGO — Detroit-based Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone PLC, Michigan’s top bond counsel firm, has tapped long-time public finance attorney Amanda Van Dusen to lead the public finance group.

CHICAGO — Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said he was “elated” by Friday’s announcement that a for-profit health care system is interested in buying the Detroit Medical Center — Michigan’s largest charity-care provider — and infusing $800 million into the center’s Detroit campus.

A Korean battery maker said it would build a $303 million plant to make electric car batteries in the town of Holland.