Wisconsin

CHICAGO - Lawyers for five Wisconsin school districts trying to recoup their ill-fated $200 million investment in collateralized debt obligations to fund their non-pension retiree health liabilities are engaged in formal mediation talks with the financial firms they blame for their losses.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court last week overturned an appeals court ruling and upheld the tax-exempt status of an outpatient facility operated by nonprofit Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare.

CHICAGO - With a selection process underway to update its underwriting pools, Wisconsin on Wednesday will take bids on $338 million of bonds in its first general obligation sale following the adoption of a $66 billion budget that moves the state closer to structural balance.

CHICAGO - Wisconsin will take bids on $338 million of new-money general obligation bonds on July 20, fresh from capturing its lowest rate in recent memory on an $800 million note sale that was held last week.

Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. is moving into the health care and senior-living financing sectors with the new hire of a public finance banking veteran.

Milwaukee-based Quarles & Brady LLP has hired veteran bond attorney Scott Bremer as a partner in its Chicago office to help the firm as it seeks to expand its public finance practice to cover the state of Illinois and local government issuers here.

CHICAGO - A few years after picking up and moving from Chicago, where he worked for a major accounting firm, to settle in a small Colorado town, W. Martin "Wally" Morics was itching for more of a challenge.

Gov. Scott Walker signed Wisconsin's new, two-year $66 billion budget into law on Sunday after using his veto pen on 50 items. He mostly left intact the budget passed earlier this month, which closely resembled his original plan that dealt with a $3 billion deficit primarily with cuts.

CHICAGO - Wisconsin plans to take competitive bids July 6 on $800 million of operating notes that will help the state smooth out its cash-flow needs.

CHICAGO - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will spend the next week or so reviewing the $66 billion, two-year budget approved by lawmakers before signing the spending plan, which closely resembles his original proposal by dealing with a $3 billion deficit primarily with cuts.

CHICAGO - Debate was expected to began Wednesday in the Wisconsin Assembly on a new budget, one day after the state's high court reinstated Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill that raised employee pension payments and health care premiums and curbed most public unions' collective bargaining rights.

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Lake Geneva’s rating a notch to Aa2, citing its solid financial position.

Regulators denied Ambac Assurance Corp.’s requests that it be allowed to pay interest on all its outstanding surplus notes due June 7.

CHICAGO — A Wisconsin judge on Thursday struck down the state’s controversial law that curtailed the collective bargaining powers of most public unions and raised pension contributions and health care premiums, concluding that lawmakers violated state open-meetings rules in their haste to pass the legislation.

Lawyers for Ambac Financial Group said the bankruptcy plan submitted by the Wisconsin insurance regulator was unacceptable, and the company intends to issue its own plan in June.

CHICAGO — Milwaukee will competitively sell about $250 million of general obligation debt Wednesday as it grapples with the impact of looming state revenue cuts proposed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin now expects to collect at least $600 million more in tax revenues over the next three years than previously projected, but Gov. Scott Walker said most of the increase would go to pay off existing obligations, not to ease deep education and local government spending cuts proposed in his next budget.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin will enter the market as soon as Wednesday with up to $276 million of general obligation refunding bonds to complete a debt restructuring originally held up by the controversy earlier this year over Gov. Scott Walker’s move to curtail the collective bargaining rights of most public unions.

CHICAGO — Since its creation by the Wisconsin Legislature last year, the Public Finance Authority is spreading the message that while it may have a northern address, its boundaries as a conduit issuer extend across the country.

CHICAGO — The efforts of five Wisconsin school districts to recoup their ill-fated $200 million investment in collateralized debt obligations have received reinforcement in the form of possible Securities and Exchange Commission action against an investment bank for its role in the transaction.