Midwest

CHICAGO — Kent State University will come to market Thursday with $170 million of new-money bonds that will raise funds for a large capital plan at the school's main campus in Kent, Ohio.

CHICAGO — The Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities of Minnesota enters the market this week and returns later in the month with more than $400 million of new-money and refunding general obligation bonds that offer investors top-rated tax-exempt and taxable paper.

CHICAGO – The Chicago Transit Authority Friday unveiled plans for a $500 million overhaul of its bus fleet by 2014.

Warning that the state's credit rating hangs in the balance, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn plans to meet with legislative leaders to take another shot at pension reforms after a reform package collapsed in the 11th hour of the General Assembly session.

CHICAGO — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is reportedly close to reaching a final agreement with Canada on a long-stalled $4 billion trade bridge spanning the Detroit River at the nation’s busiest trade route.

CHICAGO -- If it passes, a referendum that would abolish North Dakota’s property taxes would pose a significant fiscal threat to local governments and would also raise their borrowing costs, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report out Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels made the rounds in the nation’s capitol Thursday, urging lawmakers to pass a transportation bill friendly to public-private partnerships and telling reporters that he fears there might not be a bill at all.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority of Illinois will enter the market with about $845 million of new-money and refunding revenue bonds as the agency that manages Chicago's McCormick Place convention center seeks to take advantage of favorable market rates.

Fitch Ratings downgraded $3 billion of Detroit's sewer bonds as the city prepares to enter the market with a new-money issue in mid-June, in part to cover the expense of terminating costly interest-rate swaps.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Senate passed legislation Tuesday raising the state's cigarette tax by $1 as part of a $2.7 billion Medicaid reform package aimed at easing the program's strain on state finances.