Northeast

The Internal Revenue Service has opened an audit of $31 million of health center revenue bonds issued in 2005 by the Lebanon County, Pa., Health Facilities Authority to refund bonds previously sold in 1999 for a retirement facility.

Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson warned that without a fiscal recovery plan in place, Pennsylvania's capital city would be unable to pay its nearly 500 workers in mid-September.

Though the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey didn't say so directly in its statement announcing stunningly high fare-hike proposals, the message was clear: the authority is worried about its bond rating.

Ron Davis only recently found out about Central Falls' predicament."Somebody sent me an e-mail two days ago," Davis, the mayor of Prichard, Ala., said Thursday in a telephone interview.But his city of 23,000 residents along Alabama's Gulf Coast and the Rhode Island city in bankruptcy court, both with similar population sizes, have experienced major struggles with pension-debt gridlock.

For the second time in two months, the Internal Revenue Service has disclosed it is broadening an audit of student loan securities, focusing on the position that student loans should not be reallocated to different bond issues.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Rhode Island in Providence has designated the Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing by Central Falls as historical, according to a court filing.

Moody’s Investors Service confirmed the Aa1 long-term letter-of-credit-backed rating of Philadelphia’s Series 2009B general obligation multi-modal refunding bonds, affecting $100 million of debt.

Pittsburgh’s City Council has tabled a $91.7 million bond proposal aimed at saving about $3.6 million.

The New York City Transitional Finance Authority has sold $1.05 billion of future tax-secured, fixed-rate conversion and refunding subordinate-lien bonds.

Cape May County’s Board of Chosen Freeholders will hold a public hearing on Tuesday over a proposed $61 million bond ordinance.