New York

New York Gov. David Paterson will press lawmakers to act to close a $315 million current-year deficit in an extraordinary session of the Legislature scheduled for Monday.

Former political adviser Hank Morris last week pleaded guilty in a pay-to-play kickback scheme involving the New York State pension fund.

A New York credit created last year to finance certain workers’ compensation costs will finally debut next week. The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York plans to sell $97 million of taxable pledged assessment bonds, which are expected to price Dec. 2.

New York is likely to impose a property tax cap next year but its effectiveness could depend on local decision-makers, according to a commentary published Monday by a government think tank.

New York is reaching out to retail investors with a website launched to coincide with a $1.1 billion personal income tax bond deal next week. The deal is the first to appear on the site, which went live last month, and with a glut of year-end issuance ­driving muni rates sharply higher ­recently, extra marketing couldn’t hurt.

California, New York, and Illinois are making a play for more than $1.2 billion of high-speed rail funding that was awarded to two Midwestern states whose Republican governors-elect plan to reject the grants.

New York City will lower its assumed rate of return on its pension funds, which will increase the amount the city contributes, Comptroller John Liu said Thursday.

The Municipal Bond Club of New York raised $3,500 for the East Harlem Tutorial Program at its second annual fundraiser on Nov. 4.

New York attorney general and Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo sued former Quadrangle Group principal Steven Rattner Thursday over his alleged role in a widespread kickback scheme to obtain investments from New York’s largest pension fund, the $135 billion Common Retirement Fund.

The New York State Thruway Authority approved a $1.1 billion budget Wednesday with no plans to issue general revenue bonds in 2011 for capital projects. Instead, the agency plans to roll over its $680 million of outstanding bond anticipation notes that are due in mid-2011.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority projected that lower returns on pension fund investments would widen out-year budget gaps, officials announced during a budget presentation Wednesday.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority tabled the selection of a new underwriting syndicate after a board member questioned the choices at a finance committee meeting Monday.

Silverstein Properties Inc. could use up to $200 million of tax-exempt recovery zone facility bonds to help finance office towers at the World Trade Center site, the developer and deal participants said Monday.

When Adelphi University in Long Island, N.Y., goes to market this week with $25 million of tax-exempt bonds, it will use a resurrected conduit issuer to get around the lack of industrial development agency financing.

Some of the people named to New York Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo’s transition team on Thursday are familiar names to the municipal bond industry.

The New York Municipal Bond Bank Agency plans to market $50.7 million of bonds on behalf of five counties next week in its third pooled offering utilizing stimulus programs.

The New York City Capital Resource Corp. gave final approval Tuesday to the issuance of $19.7 million of recovery zone facility bonds for a Harlem hotel as it tries to get deals out the door before the program expires at the end of this year.

Public bus service in Nassau County, N.Y., could be privatized after talks on Monday between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the county executive produced no resolution in a funding dispute.

Requiring local government employees and retirees in New York to pay a share of health insurance premiums could save more than $1 billion annually, according to a think tank report released Monday.

Higher spending and lower revenues than anticipated in New York have created a $315 million mid-year budget gap, the state Division of Budget said in a midyear report last week.