Missouri

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.

Missouri budget revenues are expected to grow by 3.9% to $7.6 billion in fiscal 2013, officials said last week.

Standard & Poor’s has revised its outlook on Hannibal Regional Hospital’s BBB-plus rating to negative from stable as the Missouri facility struggles with declining admissions.

The trustee for $39 million of bonds sold by Moberly, Mo., to help finance an artificial sweetener factory has joined with other creditors to pursue an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing against the Chinese company that abandoned the project and defaulted on debt payments.

Moody's Investors Service dropped its rating on Greene County's debt four notches and warned of further negative action due to the county's lack of adequate financial reporting.

CHICAGO — The bondholder-owned St. Louis convention center hotel complex is back on the selling block with consultants lining up potential bidders in hopes of closing on a deal next year, the bond trustee reported in an investor notice.

CHICAGO — The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District got mixed signals from rating agencies this week, winning an upgrade to AAA from Standard & Poor's while losing its top mark from Fitch Ratings ahead of a $53 million revenue bond sale next week.

CHICAGO — Six months after a devastating tornado destroyed its competitor's facility, Freeman Health System in Joplin, Mo., will come to market next week with $25 million of bonds, primarily to fund additional beds needed to meet a surge in demand for its services.

Voters in Jackson and Clay counties last week easily approved a one-eighth cent sales tax to raise new revenue for the 100-year-old Kansas City Zoo.

CHICAGO - The trustee for $39 million of appropriation-backed bonds sold by a Moberly, Missouri, to help finance an artificial sweetener factory has filed a federal lawsuit against the Chinese company that abandoned the half-built project and defaulted on its city payments to cover debt service.

CHICAGO - Moberly, Mo., on Tuesday informed the trustee of $39 million of annual appropriation-backed revenue bonds that it won't honor its pledge to repay the debt issued to help finance construction of a half-built artificial sweetener plant abandoned by a Chinese company.

Missouri, a strong but rare issuer, will take competitive bids Wednesday on a $23.4 million refunding of appropriation-backed debt sold through a conduit to cover the state’s share of the University of Missouri-Columbia basketball arena that opened in 2004.