Nebraska

CHICAGO — The Omaha Public Power District will hit the market Thursday with $120 million of taxable Build America Bonds while delaying a $125 million refunding issue amid lower-than-expected market savings.

CHICAGO — Midwestern voters next week go to the polls to decide the fate of $2.16 billion worth of borrowing requests, choose new governors, and decide spending and taxing measures.

CHICAGO — The Nebraska Public Power District will enter the market Monday with $270 million of bonds as part of its annual borrowing to finance capital projects.

CHICAGO — The last time Nebraska issued bonds to finance highway projects was the summer of 1969. But five years of falling road revenues have prompted lawmakers to give borrowing a fresh look.

A new bond authority created to build and own a new arena in Lincoln, Neb., will competitively price $100 million of taxable Build America Bonds on Tuesday.

The Omaha Public Power District's board approved up to $300 million of bonds to finance capital projects over the next two years.

CHICAGO — Midwestern bond issuance leaped by 32.5% to $39.8 billion for the first six months of the year, due primarily to Illinois’ borrowing spree to finance its $31 billion capital program and its use of debt for budgetary relief.

CHICAGO — Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle Tuesday proposed a trio of tax increases in part to help address a pension shortfall that credit analysts have warned is one of the triple-A rated city’s main challenges.

CHICAGO — Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded nearly $2 billion of outstanding tax-exempt gas prepayment bonds and warned that another $1.9 billion could be cut due to the recent rating downgrade for BP Corporation North America Inc.

CHICAGO — Sanitary improvement districts have long been a key infrastructure development tool in Omaha. However, the districts are increasingly distressed amid the region’s lifeless housing market, and many are starting to have trouble paying back the debt they issued at the peak of the housing boom five years ago.

CHICAGO — Nebraska voters in Tuesday’s primary green-lighted several borrowing requests and a constitutional amendment that will allow local governments to issue tax-exempt debt on behalf of nonprofit organizations.

CHICAGO — Nebraska voters on May 11 will decide whether to expand state law to allow cities, counties, and villages to issue tax-exempt debt on behalf of nonprofit organizations for capital projects.

A bill that would have paved the way for Nebraska cities to create separate political subdivisions to issue bonds and impose new taxes appeared dead for the year after lawmakers sent it back to committee Monday.

CHICAGO — Douglas County School District 1, Nebraska’s largest school system, will enter the market this week with $89.5 million of refunding bonds.

CHICAGO — Lincoln, Neb., would partner with the University of Nebraska to build a $344 million arena on a stretch of blighted rail yard west of downtown under a plan that will go before the city’s voters in May.

WASHINGTON — The Nebraska Supreme Court last week dismissed a lawsuit brought by Falls City against the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool and three of its staff members.

A handful of Midwestern state housing authorities, most of them shut out of the credit market this year, are acting to take advantage of the U.S. government's temporary new-issue bond program to jump-start their ability to provide new mortgages.

CHICAGO — The economies of Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas have emerged as some of the healthiest in the U.S., enjoying a rare stability anchored by strong commodity prices while largely escaping the strains posed in other states by the housing market’s collapse and high unemployment.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman called lawmakers back to Lincoln for a special session starting today to tackle the state’s anticipated $334 million shortfall over the 2009-2011 biennium. He also unveiled his own proposals to close the gap.