New Jersey

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded to Baa1 from A3 the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority’s $75 million of Series 2004 hotel room fee revenue bonds.

New Jersey's unfunded pension liability will probably worsen because the state does not plan to fully fund its actuarial annual required contributions to pensions until fiscal 2018, Fitch Ratings said Tuesday.

A ruling by a New Jersey tax court that the Red Bull Arena soccer stadium in Harrison is a taxable property is a credit positive for that community, Moody’s Investors Service said.

A federal court in New Jersey has approved a $24.9 million settlement between GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc. and the Securities and Exchange Commission over bid-rigging of municipal bond-related contracts, as well as the amounts of restitution to be distributed to each of the more than 325 state and local issuers that were defrauded.

The New York City metropolitan region stands to lose billion of dollars through delays in infrastructure projects, the new executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Monday.

Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill legalizing sports betting in New Jersey, but the move would take effect only if a federal ban on such gambling is reversed.

The failed EnCap proposal for luxury housing and golf courses on a Bergen County landfill has cost Lyndhurst, N.J., a three-notch downgrade from Moody's Investors Service that affects $53.5 million of long-term debt.

A federal court in New Jersey has approved a $46 million settlement between Wachovia Bank NA, now Wells Fargo Bank NA, and the Securities and Exchange Commission over bid-rigging of municipal-bond related contracts as well as the amounts of restitution that are to go to each of the almost 60 state and local issuers that were defrauded.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Board of Commissioners has approved a preliminary $7.1 billion combined operating and capital budget for fiscal 2012 amid complaints that the agency overspends on World Trade Center redevelopment at the expense of bridge, road and tunnel improvements.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the rating of Turnersville-based Kennedy Memorial Hospital University Medical Center to A3 from A2. The outlook remains stable at the lower level, analysts said.

After voters in Princeton Borough, N.J., and Princeton Township approved a referendum two weeks ago to consolidate into one community, municipal finance and other observers agreed that it could reflect a trend.

Standard & Poor’s raised the long-term rating to AA-minus from A on the Union County Utilities Authority’s Series 1998A senior lease revenue bonds and Series 1998 taxable solid-waste landfill revenue bonds.

The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority has approved proposals for the American Dream-Meadowlands project, formerly known as Xanadu.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is said to be chugging ahead with an outside-the-box - and outside-the-state - proposal to further extend the No. 7 subway line to New Jersey, according to a New York Post report that said he will spend the next few months planning for it.

Standard & Poor's Thursday suspended the underlying BB rating on West New York, N.J.'s general obligation debt and removed it from credit watch, where the rating agency had placed it with negative implications on Sept. 16.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Board of Commissioners advanced a capacity planning study that will deal with the five airports under its jurisdiction.

Standard & Poor’s raised its underlying rating on various bonds issued by the New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority for Saint Barnabas Corp. to BBB from BBB-minus.

Susan Urahn, managing director for the Pew Center on the States, and New Jersey Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff will be the keynote speakers at a forum about state pension issues on Sept. 30 at Rutgers University in Newark.

The mayor of Collingswood, N.J., criticized Moody's Investors Service for imposing a rare "super downgrade" on it - six notches to Ba1, or junk status, from A1, affecting $27.8 million of outstanding rated debt.

As the new developer of the stalled Xanadu retail and amusement mall project at the Meadowlands explores public financing options such as bond sales and tax breaks — possibly for as much as $1 billion — skeptics question whether a concept that worked in the hinterlands will succeed in New Jersey.