Midwest

CHICAGO — The Michigan State Building Authority Tuesday will begin pricing $647 million of bonds to generate debt service relief and finance various capital projects.

CHICAGO — Fitch Ratings stripped Minnesota of its coveted AAA rating Thursday, punishing the once flush state for political gridlock that has driven a reliance on one-time revenue gimmicks to balance recent budgets, and is also behind the current impasse over a $5 billion budget gap that has shut down state government.

CHICAGO — Illinois collected $3.4 billion more in base revenue during fiscal 2011 than the previous year thanks mostly to an income tax hike approved midway through the year and aided by a recovering economy, according to a new report from the state's nonpartisan legislative commission.

Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. is moving into the health care and senior-living financing sectors with the new hire of a public finance banking veteran.

Milwaukee-based Quarles & Brady LLP has hired veteran bond attorney Scott Bremer as a partner in its Chicago office to help the firm as it seeks to expand its public finance practice to cover the state of Illinois and local government issuers here.

Novi, Mich.-based Trinity Health has closed its acquisition of Chicago's Loyola University Health System in a deal that totals more than $1 billion.

Chicago's lobbyists — including public finance bankers, financial advisers, and lawyers who seek work on city bond sales — would face greater reporting requirements under a package of ethics reforms Mayor Rahm Emanuel will introduce to the City Council Wednesday.

As Minnesota entered its fifth day of a government shutdown, Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders resumed budget negotiations Tuesday as a bipartisan set of former state officials announced the formation of a group that will try to bridge the current political divide over a $5 billion deficit.

South Dakota state officials said last week they had reached an agreement on a new gambling contract with the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe just days before the start of a federal trial over the dispute.

Moody's Investors Service raised its rating to Baa1 from Baa2 on $137 million of bonds issued on behalf of the Altru Health System by the city of Grand Forks. The outlook is stable.