Northeast

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey passed a $7.17 billion operating and capital budget Tuesday for calendar year 2011 that keeps operating growth flat while boosting capital spending.

Putnam County, N.Y., executive-elect Vincent Leibell 3rd pleaded guilty Monday to obstruction of justice and tax evasion. It was unclear Monday who will run the county beginning on Jan. 1 when the long-time state politician would have taken office.

Municipal enterprise projects that are struggling to meet operating and debt-service costs could be a default risk as cash-strapped states and cities become less likely to offer such entities direct aid, according to Moody's Investors Service.

New York's two largest issuers of affordable housing bonds plan to end the year with deals under the revised New Issue Bond Purchase program.

Expected rents at a rising office tower at the World Trade Center site will back debt service on $1.31 billion of tax-exempt Liberty revenue bonds expected to price this week, but their real security comes from local ­governments.

Massachusetts next week plans its first-ever bond sale from the Commonwealth Transportation Fund, a new credit that grabbed triple-A ratings last week from Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s.

The Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corp. this week will sell $66.3 million of revenue bonds, including Build America Bonds, to help finance a wind power project in western Massachusetts.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority Wednesday will issue $1.5 billion of taxable Build America Bonds following Moody’s Investors Service’s revision of the credit’s outlook to negative from stable.

Gov. Chris Christie Thursday announced that the New Jersey Transit Authority hired the Washington law firm Patton Boggs LLP to help the state challenge the Federal Transit Administration’s demand that it repay $271 million in federal money the state spent on a canceled commuter-rail tunnel.

Pennsylvania Treasurer Robert McCord Wednesday sent a letter to governor-elect Tom Corbett asking for his input on a stalled $1 billion new-money debt issuance that includes Build America Bonds.