Midwest

Moody's has downgraded Fairfield by two notches to Baa1 from A2 and warned of further negative action as the city struggles with budget deficits.

Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle last week touted the repeal of a 1% sales tax increase that had made the sales tax rate in Cook and Chicago among the highest in the nation.

Investors who hold some of the $4.5 billion of revenue bonds issued for the controversial Prairie State Energy Project can take heart that the project's long-term economics remain favorable for participating public power agencies despite cost overruns, says Moody's Investors Service.

Kentucky and Indiana settle the 2009 federal lawsuit by two nonprofit groups that could have derailed the $2.6 billion Ohio River Bridges Project. A second federal complaint is still pending.

Fired last summer by Blaylock Robert Van LLC, Chicago-based public finance banker Frank Paul has filed a charge of race and age employment discrimination against his former employer with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich's proposal to issue $1.5 billion of bonds against future toll revenue from the Ohio Turnpike won't hurt bondholders of existing turnpike debt, though the new bonds may not be as highly rated as the current AA debt, Fitch Ratings said in a report Friday.

Detroit's recently filed annual audit warns that the struggling city faces substantial challenge from a possible $440 million cash payment tied to interest-rate swaps that hedge its pension bonds.

A group of prominent Illinois-based civic groups Thursday banded together to intensify pressure on lawmakers to act now during a special legislative session to overhaul the state's pension system weighed down by $95 billion in unfunded obligations.

Ohio will sell $220M of general obligation bonds that are a mix of new-money and refunding debt next week, and $267 million of GO bonds in early February.

The funded ratios of 11 pension funds that cover Chicago, Cook County and statewide municipal workers in Illinois deteriorated in 2011 and they collectively now carry $37 billion of unfunded obligations, according to a new report.