Midwest

CHICAGO — Michigan officials are putting the final touches on a fiscal 2013 budget that will likely mark the state’s first contribution since the early 1990s to prefund its towering retiree health care liability.

As Indiana spends down $3.8 billion generated by its 2006 lease of the Indiana Toll Road, the state has a series of new public-private partnerships in the pipeline that underscore its continued reliance on the technique to provide financing for transportation infrastructure projects.

The St. Louis Rams submitted an expansion plan for its home at the Edward Jones Dome that could cost $500 million to $750 million, according to published reports.

A struggling film studio located in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac has a new tenant, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.

Michigan state Rep. Maureen Stapleton, who represents Detroit, last week introduced legislation that would create a bond-issuing authority to take over the city’s troubled lighting department.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Glenda Price, a former college president, to the nine-member financial advisory board that will help oversee the implementation of the consent agreement between Detroit and the state.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said he would seek legislative support for a gasoline tax increase next year to raise revenue to pay for road and bridge work.

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Springfield, Ill.’s senior-lien electric revenue bonds two notches and assigned a negative outlook.

CHICAGO — The Ohio Department of Transportation is taking bids from firms interested in advertising at its Interstate rest stops and welcome areas to help raise funds to whittle down a $1.6 billion budget hole that officials say will delay projects for years.

The Internal Revenue Service has notified the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago that it has closed an audit without changing the tax-exempt status on $346.6 million of general obligation refunding bonds and $50.79 million of GO refunding bonds limited-tax series issued in May 2006.