Oregon

The Portland City Council voted unanimously to create a Tourism Improvement District, which will raise the tax on all hotels in the city with 50 or more rooms.

Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler said the state has saved more than $60 million in the first half of the year by refunding bonds.

Oregon’s Office of Economic Analysis said April provided no revenue surprises on either the upside or downside.

Fitch Ratings this week upgraded the Oregon Health and Science University to A-plus from A as the school prepares to come to market next week with $268 million of revenue bonds.

SAN FRANCISCO – State officials have begun an early effort to find ways for California, Washington and Oregon to save money by cooperating on financing future infrastructure projects pegged in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis said in a report released Wednesday that projected general fund and lottery revenues have been lowered by $35.1 million from the December forecast.

SAN FRANCISCO — Oregon may have to give a cash infusion to a struggling alternative energy program with $229 million of debt outstanding to pay debt service backed with the state's general obligation pledge.

SAN FRANCISCO — An Oregon panel that advises policymakers on debt said in a report Wednesday that the state's borrowing options will remain "highly constrained" in the near future.

The city of Eugene was among the 100 investors that put money into a Washington regional events center that defaulted on $41.8 million of bonds in early December, according to a published report.

Public finance law firm Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP has opened a new office in Portland, Ore., after K&L Gates' public finance group in the city jumped over to the firm.

SAN FRANCISCO - Robert W. Baird & Co. said it has added 23-year municipal banking veteran David Ulbricht as a managing director in its public finance division in Portland, Ore., as the investment bank continues to expand its business in the West.

SAN FRANCISCO — Portland school district voters last week narrowly rejected a $548 million school construction bond measure — the biggest-ever attempted by a local government in Oregon.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Less than six years after Oregon Coast Aquarium bondholders agreed to a substantial haircut to keep the nonprofit out of bankruptcy court, the facility is again struggling with its debt service requirements.

SAN FRANCISCO — Oregon will march to market next week with its largest sale so far this year, a deal that is part of a broader buttoned-downed strategy.

SAN FRANCISCO — Standard & Poor’s Wednesday said it raised Oregon’s general obligation bond rating to AA-plus from AA as a result of tighter budget controls.

Oregon's debt commission told the governor and lawmakers that they need to rein in general fund-backed bonding in the next two-year budget cycle.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber announced Tuesday the creation of a new chief operating officer position that will be filled by Michael Jordan, the COO at Metro, the regional government for the Portland area.

Fitch Ratings has withdrawn its ratings on $125 million of Oregon Bond Bank bonds.

SAN FRANCISCO — A long-debated plan to build a 600-room hotel next to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland may be rising from the grave.

SAN FRANCISCO — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is banging the drum for a program to boost energy efficiency in schools, possibly paid for with bonds backed by the cost savings.