Midwest

Fitch Ratings affirmed the Nelson Gallery Foundation’s AA rating but revised its outlook to stable from positive ahead of a $35 million refunding.

More than a third of Detroit’s residential lots are either vacant or contain abandoned buildings, but more than 90% of the remaining occupied parcels are in good or fair condition, according to a massive new report on the city’s housing stock that was released last week.

The Illinois Regional Transportation Authority last week warned that additional service cuts are looming if the state doesn’t soon make good on $250 million in aid payments owed to the agency.

CHICAGO — Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty late yesterday sent state lawmakers a letter warning that he intends to veto the $1 billion capital bonding bill approved by the Democrat majorities in both of the Legislature’s chambers.

CHICAGO — Lincoln, Neb., would partner with the University of Nebraska to build a $344 million arena on a stretch of blighted rail yard west of downtown under a plan that will go before the city’s voters in May.

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn last week signed legislation that replaces the current 13-member board of the fiscally struggling Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority with a seven-member interim panel charged with reviewing how to revamp the agency’s management of Chicago’s convention center business.

CHICAGO — The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission enters the market this week with $185 million of Garvee bonds to complete the financing of its Safe and Sound bridge program and to fund its share of a new span across the Mississippi River.

The Michigan Department of Transportation says a report released this week confirms the need for a proposed $2.3 billion, bond-financed bridge spanning the busy trade route between Detroit and Canada.

Ohio will sell $146 million of general obligation bonds Monday in a transaction that includes $120 million of new-money taxable Build America Bonds and just under $26 million of fixed-rate tax-exempt refunding bonds.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty this week sent lawmakers legislation that calls for business tax cuts and eliminates a $1.2 billion budget deficit through spending cuts and increased federal Medicaid funds not yet approved by Congress.