Northeast

New Jersey’s independent local authorities should increase their transparency by posting annual financial reports and public meeting information online, according to state Comptroller Matthew Boxer.

The Charitable Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit in upstate New York, has drawn on its debt service reserve and is in default under an installment-payment agreement with the issuer, according to a disclosure notice on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA website.

Pennsylvania lawmakers are working on legislation that would enable public-private-partnerships to help finance transportation infrastructure needs throughout the state.

The Harrisburg Authority is pushing back against a Ba1 rating from Moody’s Investors Service on the authority’s $69.4 million of water bonds, calling the rating “fundamentally unfair.”

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded $764 million of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority assessment bonds Thursday to Aa1 from Aaa to reflect the credit rating agency’s pool financing methodology.

Local bond issuance for future school capital-construction projects in New York could shrink dramatically under a proposal to cap funding approvals at $2 billion annually in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget.

Standard & Poor’s Wednesday downgraded New Jersey’s general obligation credit rating to AA-minus from AA due to its unfunded pension liability and high debt levels.

Standard & Poor’s revised Massachusetts’ outlook to positive from stable Monday based on strong management practices as the state prepares $146.3 million of SIFMA-index refunding bonds.

Democratic lawmakers and Amtrak Monday announced a $13.5 billion plan to increase rail service between New Jersey and Manhattan by building two new train tunnels underneath the Hudson River.

A $20 million grant from New York State is expected to repay $15.4 million of outstanding bonds issued for St. Joseph’s Hospital in Elmira to help finance a yet-to-be-completed merger with another hospital.