Midwest

CHICAGO — The St. Paul Port Authority is set to issue a tender invitation in April to holders of the remaining $51.7 million of defaulted industrial revenue bonds as agreed to under a class action settlement aimed at resolving five-year-old litigation over the troubled 876 Bond Fund.

CHICAGO — The Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic plans to enter the market this spring to borrow roughly $200 million of new money for projects as part of the clinic's plans to spend $700 million annually on capital improvements over the next five years.

CHICAGO — Michigan lawmakers were scrambling Thursday to craft and pass a bill that would keep open a troubled suburban Detroit school district, while on a separate front the state battled with local school officials over the appointment of an emergency manager.

CHICAGO — Three years after holders of $98 million of revenue bonds took ownership of the St. Louis convention center hotel complex, more than 50 potential buyers have expressed an interest in taking the hotels off their hands, according to the trustee.

Weeks of intense negotiations with Detroit's 48 unions could be for nought as the tentative contracts don't generate enough savings to stave off a state takeover or prevent the city from going broke by April, according to a new fiscal analysis.

Warning lawmakers that their toughest task ahead is overhauling Medicaid and pensions, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn unveiled a $33.9 billion fiscal 2013 general fund budget that holds spending in check through layoffs and state facility closures while leaving billions in unpaid bills.

Ohio will price two bond deals Wednesday and return to market next week with $118 million of capital appropriation bonds.

CHICAGO – Wisconsin enters the market as soon as Wednesday with about $365 million of general obligation refunding bonds designed to capture both traditional interest-rate savings and to accomplish a debt restructuring for budgetary relief.

CHICAGO — Missouri economic development officials and financial firms failed to conduct adequate due diligence on an artificial sweetener project in Moberly, lawmakers concluded in a report issued last week after a series of hearings probing the now abandoned, bond-financed project.

Critics of Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman’s tax plan said last week the proposal would lead to a $660 million shortfall in the upcoming two-year budget cycle.