Midwest

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton defended his dramatic and controversial tax overhaul as the most "balanced" means to put the state on a structurally sound fiscal path and called on critics to offer up an alternative.

Minnesota hospitals provided $509 million in uncompensated care in 2011, up from $496 million a year earlier, according to the Minnesota Hospital Association's annual community benefits report.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn pressed lawmakers Wednesday to act on a pension reform package that merges House and Senate proposals with the goal of improving the legislation's chances of withstanding a legal challenge by unions.

Ohio transportation officials announced the three firms that will vie for work on a $330 million bridge project in downtown Cleveland that is the state's first public-private partnership.

Gov. John Kasich proposed $1.4 billion in tax cuts and a $3 billion infrastructure program financed in part by a new Ohio Turnpike bond credit as well as a one-time $500 million cash payment into the state's rainy day fund as part of his $130.5 billion 2014-2015 spending plan.

Moody's affirmed Midway International Airport's single-A level ratings and said it should not see a significant credit impact from Chicago's effort to privatize the airfield.

Cincinnati and Duke Energy Corp. have agreed to ask a judge to decide who should pay $15 million to relocate underground utility lines to make way for the planned route of a new streetcar.

Fitch Ratings has placed Springfield, Mo,-based CoxHealth's A rating on Rating Watch Negative due to the system's impending new debt issuance.

A bill introduced last week would ask Michigan voters to raise the state sales tax by 2 percentage points to generate new money for transportation infrastructure funding.

Standard & Poor's has lowered its rating on Davenport, Iowa' general obligation debt by three notches to A from AA over the city's liquidity woes as it prepares to enter the casino business.