Midwest

In a closely watched vote, residents of Allen Park, Mich., defeated a bond referendum that would have allowed the struggling Detroit suburb to make debt payments on a controversial failed film studio development.

Detroit Public Schools will enter the market with a $142 million bond issue that will allow the troubled district to get out of an agreement with Assured Guaranty Inc. that for years has cramped its ability to borrow.

Ohio has collected $350 million more than expected for the first 10 months of fiscal 2012, officials said this week.

A federal bankruptcy court last week approved a deal allowing the Flint-based McLaren Health Care Corp. to buy Cheboygan Memorial Hospital, a troubled facility located in northern Michigan.

A move to eliminate Michigan’s personal property tax would likely drive up real property taxes, a coalition of public school leaders warned last week.

Moody’s Investors Service last week affirmed its A1 rating on the Parkview Health System and revised the outlook to stable from negative, noting the system’s improved operating performance.

Illinois Transportation Secretary Ann L. Schneider last week unveiled a $9.2 billion multi-year program that combines planning and programming for highways, airports, rail and mass transit from fiscal 2013 to fiscal 2018.

While Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed pension reforms would help stabilize the state’s pension system, according to Moody’s Investors Service, analysts warned of the negative effects it would have on some local governments, since it requires school districts to start shouldering some of the burden for funding their teachers’ pensions.

CHICAGO — Missouri lawmakers have shelved legislation that would have permitted the implementation of tolls on Interstate 70 to fund a $2 billion to $4 billion rebuilding and expansion of the aging highway through a public-private partnership.

CHICAGO — Lancaster Pollard & Co., an Ohio-based boutique investment banking firm that specializes in health care, senior living, and affordable housing transactions, has hired Craig Jones,a senior-living finance veteran to help the firm begin to expand its taxable business.