Midwest

CHICAGO — Nebraska won a coveted AAA rating last week from Standard & Poor’s. The upgrade reflects Nebraska’s history of a stable economy, conservative budgeting, strong reserves, and one of the lowest debt burdens in the nation, according to analysts.

CHICAGO — The Lombard Public Facilities Corp. in Illinois is exploring its options to buy more time for business to pick up at its bond-financed hotel and conference center after too few investors were willing to tender their bonds at the agency’s asking price.

CHICAGO — The Xenia Rural Water District’s financial position worsened in 2010, moving it closer to insolvency and increasing the pressure on the Iowa agency and its creditors to come to some agreement that likely includes debt forgiveness, according to a state audit.

CHICAGO — The new administration running Cook County, Ill., continued to fill out its top financial team last week with the appointment of a new budget director and a new deputy director of ­finance.

CHICAGO — The University of Chicago Medical Center will enter the market with $182 million of debt beginning next week to wrap up its planned borrowing for a new hospital pavilion that will house its complex-care services.

CHICAGO — Indiana legislators last week passed a $28 billion two-year general fund budget and several bond-related bills but failed to pass a controversial measure allowing fiscally distressed municipalities to file for bankruptcy.

CHICAGO — North Dakota legislators last week approved a fiscal 2012-13 $9.9 billion budget that reflects the state’s flush position, featuring $500 million of tax cuts, nearly $1 billion of infrastructure projects financed with cash, and $1 billion of reserves. For the third biennium in a row, the budget includes no borrowing.

CHICAGO — Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson warned this week that the loss of state funding directed to local governments in Gov. John Kasich’s proposed 2012-2013 budget would force him to lay off up to 7% of the city’s workforce and would devastate Ohio’s largest cities.

CHICAGO — The nation’s largest nonprofit health care provider, Ascension Health, will acquire Alexian Brothers Health System, a union that marks the latest in a consolidation trend as hospital systems seek to bolster their capital positions and navigate the challenges of federal health care reform.

CHICAGO — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder warned Wednesday that 23 school districts across the state, most clustered around the Detroit area, qualify for a state takeover under its new emergency financial management law.