Midwest

Ralston, Nebraska’s general obligation arena bonds were dropped seven notches to junk by S&P Global Ratings after the project has struggled to produce the revenue needed to repay the debt.

The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy’s municipal finance center is offering grants for academic research projects on topics that range from public sector pensions and bond financing to infrastructure, taxation, and the politics of public finance.

The Internal Revenue Service’s proposed definition of a political subdivision could jeopardize the tax-exempt bonds of many public entities in Minnesota, the state’s congressional delegation recently told the agency and the Treasury Department.

Chicago’s proposed fix for its troubled municipal employees’ pension fund offers a better solution than a restructuring backed by the fund’s managers, say Chicago’s finance chiefs.

A lawsuit filed against the state of Michigan on behalf of 14 local municipalities this month seeks to correct what they contend is a miscalculation in state aid that has shortchanged them for two decades.

Chicago Public Schools closed on $325 million of short-term borrowing earlier this month and plans a $150 million draw next month from new credit lines to manage its precarious liquidity.

Northwestern Memorial Healthcare and University of Chicago Medical Center are planning deals totaling about $425 million following Illinois Finance Authority approval.

Wisconsin lawmakers are skeptical of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed $6.5 billion, two-year transportation budget.

State and local governments and showing a wide variety of impacts from the collapse of the oil market that began two years ago, ratings analysts say.

While the Chicago and Illinois credits both remain tainted by their pension and budget ills, their paths have diverged and Chicago is looking better, Nuveen Asset Management says in a new report.