Missouri

CHICAGO — Milwaukee city and county voters chose new comptrollers last week, while those in a tornado-ravaged Missouri city approved bonding for school building projects, and St. Louis County voters approved new debt for courthouse projects.

CHICAGO — An investor with a stake in $39 million of defaulted bonds issued for a failed artificial sweetener plant in Missouri has filed a lawsuit accusing underwriter Morgan Keegan & Co. and counsel Armstrong Teasdale LLP of providing false and misleading information in the offering statement.

Moody’s Investors Service has revised its outlook to negative on the A2 rating of the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission’s MoPEP power pool bonds ahead of its $35.6 million issue.

The owners of the St. Louis Rams last week rejected the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Center’s proposed $124 million plan to upgrade the team’s Edward Jones Dome stadium, which relied on $60 million of public funding.

CHICAGO — Bank of America NA sued the St. Louis-based Jewish Community Center last week, alleging the nonprofit has withheld more than $4 million it owes the bank as a tactic to win more favorable terms on the repayment of $45 million of bonds held by the bank.

CHICAGO — The trustee for $39 million of defaulted appropriation-backed bonds issued for a failed artificial sweetener plant in Moberly, Mo., won't tap dwindling reserves to cover the March 1 debt service payment.

A Missouri House panel held a hearing Monday on a series of bills that, if enacted, would affect future borrowing by local governments for economic development projects.

CHICAGO — Three years after holders of $98 million of revenue bonds took ownership of the St. Louis convention center hotel complex, more than 50 potential buyers have expressed an interest in taking the hotels off their hands, according to the trustee.

CHICAGO — Missouri economic development officials and financial firms failed to conduct adequate due diligence on an artificial sweetener project in Moberly, lawmakers concluded in a report issued last week after a series of hearings probing the now abandoned, bond-financed project.

Moody’s Investors Service upgraded Heartland Regional Medical Center’s underlying rating by one notch to A1, citing strong operating profitability.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon last week said any plan to implement tolls on Interstate 70 to fund its rebuilding should go before voters.

CHICAGO — With Kansas City, Mo., set to exhaust its voter-approved general obligation bonding authority with an issue next month, Mayor Sly James is hoping to win City Council and voter support for as much as $1 billion of new authority for infrastructure improvements over the next decade.

CHICAGO — Missouri transportation officials are seeking legislative authority to turn Interstate 70 into a toll road to fund a $2 billion to $4 billion rebuilding and expansion of the aging highway, possibly through a pubic-private partnership.

Nearly nine months after a devastating tornado wrecked its high school and destroyed or damaged nine other facilities, the Joplin School District in Missouri voted this week to ask voters for $62 million of borrowing authority to cover its share of a $185 million rebuilding program.

The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission last week submitted to the St. Louis Rams a $124 million renovation plan for the Edward Jones Dome with $60 million of public funding.

CHICAGO — Fitch Ratings hit St. Louis' public transit agency with a downgrade late last week as it continues to work on details of a debt restructuring and reduction plan planned for next year that would bolster its long-term fiscal health.

CHICAGO — Missouri, a rare issuer, will enter the market with two refundings totaling $500 million later this year to generate both ongoing present-value savings and up-front savings that are built into Gov. Jay Nixon's proposed $23 billion fiscal 2013 budget.

CHICAGO — The trustee on $113 million of bonds that financed construction of the privately owned Branson, Mo., Airport opted not to nearly drain remaining reserves to make a Jan. 1 debt-service payment as airport operators struggle to bolster operations and stave off future bondholder enforcement actions.

Standard & Poor’s has raised the rating on the West Plains Industrial Development Authority’s revenue bonds issued for the Ozarks Medical Center to BB-minus, three notches below investment grade, from B-plus.

The nation's largest nonprofit health care provider has extended its reach into the Chicago-area market with the acquisition of a suburban hospital chain.