Midwest

Midwestern voters head to the polls tomorrow to cast decisions on elected offices, new casinos, and more than 125 ballot questions that would authorize more than $3.3 billion worth of borrowing, led by Detroit Public Schools' $500 million request and $750 million for a new public hospital in Indiana.

CHICAGO — Minnesota’s largest not-for-profit health care provider, Allina Health System, enters the market next week with the first piece of its nearly $400 million new-money and refunding issue with a trifecta of upgrades in hand — a rarity for the hard-hit sector.

CHICAGO — Indiana has dropped a securities fraud complaint against Chrysler LLC after the automaker agreed to return $5.5 million of bonds that Tipton County issued to finance infrastructure for a now-abandoned transmission plant.

CHICAGO — The Sierra Club of Ohio is ramping up its efforts to prevent ­American Municipal Power Inc. from building a new $3.9 billion coal-fired plant in Ohio.

CHICAGO — Novi, Mich.-based Trinity Health Credit Group will enter the market today with $233 million of fixed-rate revenue bonds, followed by $102 million of variable-rate securities in two weeks to finance hospital projects in Indiana and Michigan.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle yesterday announced a package of education-related reform legislation that would hand the control of the struggling Milwaukee Public Schools system over to the city’s mayor.

A second Erickson Retirement Community facility outside of Chicago is in default on its 2007 tax-exempt bonds after the nonprofit associated with it failed to make principal and interest payments due on Aug. 1 and Sept. 1.

Fitch Ratings downgraded the Monroe Clinic Inc.’s rating one notch to A-minus due to its plans to added debt load that will come early month with the issuance of $65 million of fixed-rate bonds.

Fitch Ratings downgraded Lorain County’s limited-tax general obligation debt one notch to AA-minus and the Lorain County Port Authority’s 2003A bonds — which are secured by the county’s pledge of non-ad-valorem tax revenues — to A-plus from AA-minus.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said this week she has appointed a team to review the finances of River Rouge, a move that could lead to an eventual declaration of a state of fiscal emergency.