Midwest

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is seeking City Council approval to sell up to $175 million of general obligation bonds in June to provide funding for the Chicago Public Schools for construction projects.

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn yesterday signed legislation that cuts retirement benefits for future employees to help rein in the state’s growing unfunded pension liabilities, a measure he hopes lays the groundwork for legislative approval of a controversial income tax increase.

CHICAGO — Cook County, Ill., has announced the finance teams tapped to bring to market $412 million of new money as well as a chunk of refunding bonds that likely will mark the last issue under Board President Todd Stroger’s watch.

CHICAGO — Detroit Mayor Dave Bing yesterday unveiled a much-anticipated 2011 budget proposal that relies on a series of relatively modest spending cuts to whittle down the deficit while putting on hold bold initiatives to securitize assets to raise new money.

CHICAGO — The Art Institute of Chicago received final approval from the Illinois Finance Authority board yesterday for a debt refunding this spring of up to $245 million that will allow the prestigious museum to shed its floating-rate risks.

CHICAGO — While the market’s attention is focused on Chicago’s sale of more than $1 billion of new-money and refunding debt for O’Hare International Airport this week, the city is also preparing to refund and reoffer pieces of its Midway Airport debt it had hoped to retire with its now-stalled plan to privatize the facility.

Catholic Healthcare Partners of Ohio, one of the country's largest nonprofit health-care systems, on Wednesday will begin selling $450 million of fixed-rate debt, followed by $230 million of variable-rate debt early next month.

Illinois faces increasing pressure on liquidity as a short-term borrowing is coming due, putting the state on pace to close out the fiscal year on June 30 with a $5.5 billion backlog of bills, Comptroller Daniel Hynes warned in a recent report.

Ohio next week will price $170 million of taxable Build America Bonds that feature the state's highest credit rating to finance improvement projects.

CHICAGO — The financial outlooks for the St. Louis Metro and Menasha, Wis., brightened this week after voters approved a sales tax increase for the struggling transit agency and a sale-leaseback transaction for the city that will help it settle $23 million of defaulted debt.