Minnesota

CHICAGO - With new budgets to fund and the start of the school year around the corner, the season of short-term borrowing is in full swing for Minnesota school districts grappling with heightened liquidity challenges following the state's adoption of a budget that further delays some aid payments.

Standard & Poor’s last week revised its outlook to positive from stable on Northfield Hospital’s low investment-grade rating of BBB-minus.

CHICAGO - Underwriters interested in participating in the financing team for Minnesota's proposed tobacco bond issues have until Aug. 24 to submit their proposals for review.

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded multifamily housing revenue bonds issued by the Aurora Housing and Redevelopment Authority, Minn., for the Irongate Apartments Section 8 Assisted Project deeper into junk-bond territory.

CHICAGO - Moody's Investors Service has raised its rating on the International Falls Economic Development Authority's $11.4 million of taxable lease revenue bonds that financed a new headquarters for National Parks Service at the nearby Voyageurs National Park now that the government is using the facility.

CHICAGO - Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed 12 budget-related bills Wednesday, paving the way for the state's sale later this summer of $600 million to $700 million of general obligation bonds for capital projects and the fall sale of tobacco bonds to help balance the new $35 billion budget.

CHICAGO - Minnesota lawmakers are expected to approve a new two-year budget in the coming days after Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders agreed to delay school aid payments and issue tobacco bonds to end a stalemate over $1.4 billion in spending that shut down state government July 1.

CHICAGO - Moody's Investors Service this week said it views positively recent court rulings in Colorado and Minnesota dismissing litigation that challenged legislative cuts to retirees' pension cost-of-living increases, and expects the rulings will spur other states to act.

CHICAGO — Fitch Ratings stripped Minnesota of its coveted AAA rating Thursday, punishing the once flush state for political gridlock that has driven a reliance on one-time revenue gimmicks to balance recent budgets, and is also behind the current impasse over a $5 billion budget gap that has shut down state government.

As Minnesota entered its fifth day of a government shutdown, Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders resumed budget negotiations Tuesday as a bipartisan set of former state officials announced the formation of a group that will try to bridge the current political divide over a $5 billion deficit.

CHICAGO - Attorneys for state retirees in Colorado and Minnesota are weighing whether to appeal court decisions last week dismissing litigation that challenged legislative cuts to pension cost-of-living hikes but fear that such rulings will "embolden" other cash-strapped states eying ways to ease pension costs.

Minnesota issued layoff notices late last week to 36,000 employees ahead of a partial government shutdown on July 1 if state leaders cannot resolve an impasse over a new two-year budget.

Ramsey County would bear none of the fiscal burden of a $350 million revenue bond issue for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium because a new sales tax would generate sufficient revenue to repay the debt, according to a report.

Moody’s Investors Service last week affirmed Allina Health Systems’ A1 rating and signaled an upgrade could be in the offing if it maintains its strong financial performance of the last two years.

CHICAGO — The St. Paul Port Authority and lawyers for a group of investors who hold a portion of its 876 Fund economic development revenue bonds will return to court later this month as litigation proceeds over the fate of $51 million of defaulted debt.

CHICAGO — The political standoff in Minnesota over taxes between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican lawmakers showed no sign of easing this week after the governor vetoed the two-year budget approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature and officials on Wednesday started planning for a possible shutdown.

CHICAGO — Minneapolis has tapped its police department finance director, Kevin Carpenter, to serve as the city’s chief financial officer following the departure of Patrick Born earlier this year to lead the Metropolitan Council.

CHICAGO — With the clock ticking on the Minnesota Legislature’s spring session, representatives from the Minnesota Vikings and Ramsey County met with key lawmakers Wednesday to promote their proposal to build a publicly subsidized $1 billion stadium in the Twin Cities suburb of Arden Hills.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic will enter the market Wednesday and shift $290 million of variable-rate securities to a fixed-rate structure to open up room in its debt portfolio for future floating-rate debt that would finance two proton therapy centers.

CHICAGO — State legislation paving the way for a partially bond-financed, publicly subsidized stadium for the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings is expected to be formally introduced on Monday to a mixed reception.