Midwest

Troubled Michigan school districts may find more affordable market access under legislation signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder that insulates certain types of bonds from the effects of bankruptcy.

Nearly nine months after a devastating tornado wrecked its high school and destroyed or damaged nine other facilities, the Joplin School District in Missouri voted this week to ask voters for $62 million of borrowing authority to cover its share of a $185 million rebuilding program.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich defended his push to privatize the Ohio Turnpike and called for the proposal's critics to "chill out" during his annual state of the state address Tuesday afternoon.

Local Democratic officials from northeast Ohio who are opposed to Gov. John Kasich’s proposal to lease the Ohio Turnpike said last week they would launch their own study of the privatization plan.

Nebraska lawmakers are eying a plan that would allow community colleges to use property tax dollars to back revenue bonds for capital improvements.

The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission last week submitted to the St. Louis Rams a $124 million renovation plan for the Edward Jones Dome with $60 million of public funding.

Moody’s Investors Service has stripped Le Center, Minn., of its investment-grade rating and warned of further negative action due to the city’s reliance on cash-flow borrowing to cover a February debt-service payment and its inability to repay a loan that came due in December.

Local governments in Minnesota had $410 million of outstanding general obligation bond debt in 2010 related to tax-increment financing districts, according to a new analysis compiled by state auditor Rebecca Otto’s office.

Legislation that would pave the way for a $1.3 billion bond-funded regional transit system for central Indiana is likely dead after the Senate president said last week he would not advance the bill.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced last week the nomination of local public finance banker Martin Cabrera Jr. to serve as chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission.