Midwest

CHICAGO — Wisconsin yesterday priced $131 million of new-money and refunding clean-water revenue bonds, the first in a series of three state deals over the next month, including a restructuring of more than $200 million of general obligation bonds for budget savings this year.

CHICAGO — Milwaukee today will competitively issue $130 million of general obligation promissory notes and another $16 million of taxable notes and bonds to raise funds for various capital projects and to refund commercial paper.

CHICAGO — The Michigan Department of Transportation last week significantly cut its five-year construction plan, warning the state faces the loss of $2.4 billion in federal aid through 2014 because it lacks matching dollars.

CHICAGO — The University of Minnesota, one of the first borrowers to use the Build America Bond program last spring, enters the market today with $36 million of fixed-rate, new-money bonds that will again tap the federal stimulus program.

CHICAGO — Illinois voters go to the polls tomorrow to make their Democratic and Republican primary picks for the November general election for all statewide offices and the Cook County Board presidency.

CHICAGO — Suburban Cincinnati’s largest mall has failed to make its last two debt service payments — and is not expected to make its upcoming payment in February — leaving the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority and a pair of suburbs scrambling to figure out how to pay the debt once the reserve fund is drained.

CHICAGO — A Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge ruled yesterday that a lawsuit filed by five southeastern Wisconsin school districts against several financial firms over the safety of an investment involving synthetic collateralized debt obligations can proceed.

CHICAGO — Iowa Gov. Chet Culver this week unveiled a $5.32 billion fiscal 2011 budget that keeps the state in the black through the use of $254 million in fiscal reserves, $340 million in savings through a government reorganization and other cost-cutting measures, and $52 million from the elimination or reduction of some tax credits.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle this week outlined a broad agenda for his final year in office, calling on the Legislature to provide property-tax breaks for homeowners and pass measures that promote job growth, hand control of the Milwaukee Public Schools over to the city’s mayor, and establish a Milwaukee-area regional transit agency.

CHICAGO — Cleveland’s single-A rated University Hospitals Health System Inc. plans to open a retail order period Monday for roughly $92 million of refunding bonds in a transaction that will shift a chunk of the system’s variable-rate debt into a fixed-rate mode.