Southeast

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida Gov. Rick Scott Thursday told four local governments that he would not change his mind about accepting $2.4 billion of federal funds for a high-speed rail project.

The financially ailing Jackson Health System in South Florida could become the latest public nonprofit entity to be taken private despite an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry believed to be related to bond disclosure issues.

Rep. Bill Owens, D-Camden, has introduced a bill to limit North Carolina's bonding authority to $138.5 million — or just 11% of what the state issued last year — in fiscal 2012 and 2013.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he would support legislation this year that would allow him to cut state agency budgets by up to 10% — instead of the 5% he's currently allowed — if revenue falls below expectations.

Standard & Poor's Tuesday revised its outlook to positive from stable on the A rating of Western Kentucky University's 2002 and 2003 consolidated educational buildings revenue bonds.

A statewide grand jury on public corruption said the "squandering of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for a mediocre product" saddled the Broward County School District with debt while leaving some areas of the county with overcrowded schools and others with vacancies.

Louisiana will enter the new-money market Tuesday for the first time since 2009 with a competitive sale of $300 million of general obligation bonds.

WASHINGTON — Supporters of the Florida high-speed rail project are scrambling to come up with options to preserve it after Gov. Rick Scott rejected $2.4 billion of federal funding last week.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Kentucky Asset/Liability Commission Wednesday expects to price $269.7 million of taxable notes, though the timing of the sale depends on another major taxable deal that may hit the market this week.

DALLAS — Louisiana will use floating-rate bonds with a three-year hard-put maturity to refinance $200 million of variable-rate general obligation bonds issued in 2008 for debt-service relief to hurricane-battered local issuers.