Missouri

Fitch Ratings last week downgraded the Howard Bend Levee District two notches to the lowest investment grade level rating.

Fitch Ratings has revised its outlook on the junk bond rating of Chesterfield Valley Transportation Development District’s sales tax bonds to positive as the district expects to add new development this year.

Investors who hold some of the $4.5 billion of revenue bonds issued for the controversial Prairie State Energy Project can take heart that the project's long-term economics remain favorable for participating public power agencies despite cost overruns, says Moody's Investors Service.

Kansas City, Mo., plans to launch construction of a streetcar system next year using a bond financing plan designed to protect the city's general budget from project shortfalls.

Plans are advancing to ask St. Louis area voters to approve a sales tax increase to raise $760 million to fund improvements to area parks and trails and the Gateway Arch grounds.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon's proposed fiscal 2014 budget can count on roughly $7.9 billion in general revenues, a figure that's up slightly from the current year.

Missouri's Mercy Health saw strong retail and institutional interest on its $250 million new-money issue for capital projects -- including the replacement of its Joplin hospital destroyed by a May 2011 tornado.

Fitch Ratings upgraded the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission revenue bonds issued for the controversial coal-fired Prairie State Energy project one notch to A now that the plant is fully operational.

Mediation is set for early next year on a renovation plan for the St. Louis Rams’ professional football stadium.

The auction last month of assets from the half-built Mamtek US Inc. artificial sweetener plant in Moberly, Missouri raised about $1.8 million.

Assets of the shuttered, half-built Mamtek US Inc. plant in Moberly Missouri were auctioned Wednesday to help creditors – including holders of $39 million of defaulted revenue bonds – recoup some of their losses.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District will refund $142 million of bonds this week in a deal that marks the final under the fiscal stewardship of treasurer Karl Tyminski.

The Missouri Development Finance Board recently approved $17 million in borrowing that will help pave the way for construction to begin next month on the long-planned, but stalled, Ballpark Village project adjacent to the St. Louis Cardinals’ Busch Stadium.

Missouri economic development officials failed to conduct sufficient due diligence on the bond-financed artificial sweetener plant abandoned last year by a Chinese company, according to a new state audit.

An auction is set for next month of the assets of the bond-financed, half-built artificial sweetener plant in Moberly, Missouri that was abandoned by its developer last year.

Alleging theft and securities fraud, local and state prosecutors in Missouri and federal regulators took aim Tuesday at the former head of the company that last year abandoned a half-built artificial sweetener plant financed with $39 million of debt backed by the city of Moberly.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster and local prosecutors announced the filing of criminal charges that includes securities fraud Tuesday against the former chief executive officer of Mamtek US., the company that abandoned a half-built bond-financed plant in Moberly.

One of the Midwest's top bond counsel firms, Missouri-based Gilmore & Bell has opened a new Nebraska office in Omaha, staffed by a trio of public finance attorneys who join the firm from competitor Baird Holm LLP.

St. Louis-based Ascension Health Alliance is advancing plans to acquire Oklahoma-based Marian Health System, the parent of three regional not-for-profit healthcare organizations in the mid and central states.

Top-rated Missouri will take competitive bids Tuesday on its long-planned $164 million general obligation refunding that will achieve double-digit savings and provide some budgetary relief.