Midwest

Ohio said it expects to lay off nearly 1,000 workers as it prepares to privatize five of its prisons under Gov. John Kasich’s budget-balancing measure.

Standard & Poor’s last week revised its outlook to stable from negative on Ohio in light of the state’s recent economic stabilization and the structural balance achieved in its new two-year budget.

Michigan’s 45-day tax amnesty program generated more than $76 million in revenue for the current 2011 fiscal year, according to the Department of Treasury.

Detroit finance director Tom Lijana announced his resignation and chief financial officer Norman White was demoted Monday as part of a sweeping reorganization of Mayor Dave Bing’s administration. Cheryl Johnson, formerly the treasurer, is the city’s new finance chief.

Gov. Pat Quinn last week made four appointments to the board of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, including former state Senate President Emil Jones Jr. as its chairman.

CHICAGO - The top-rated College of DuPage in Illinois will hold its first-ever retail order period Tuesday for $105 million of mostly new-money bonds that will finance various building improvement and maintenance projects, including the completion of its Homeland Security Education Center.

CHICAGO - In a sign of Illinois' ongoing fiscal challenges, its net assets deteriorated by $8.4 billion in fiscal 2010, pushing its deficit in that category of financial reporting up to a negative $37.9 billion, according to a new report from state auditor general William Holland.

CHICAGO - Moody's Investors Service has raised its rating on the International Falls Economic Development Authority's $11.4 million of taxable lease revenue bonds that financed a new headquarters for National Parks Service at the nearby Voyageurs National Park now that the government is using the facility.

CHICAGO - The trustee on $113 million of bonds that financed construction of privately owned Branson Airport drew on supplemental reserves to make a July 1 debt service payment as the operators work to bolster business and stave off future enforcement actions by bondholders.

CHICAGO - Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed 12 budget-related bills Wednesday, paving the way for the state's sale later this summer of $600 million to $700 million of general obligation bonds for capital projects and the fall sale of tobacco bonds to help balance the new $35 billion budget.