Southeast

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida’s ­Citizens Property Insurance Corp. last week closed on a $2.4 billion bond sale to have liquidity on hand in case a hurricane strikes the state during the upcoming storm season, which starts June 1.

A U.S. district court judge last week dismissed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority that contested its right to collect toll revenues that secure more than $900 million of MWAA's outstanding bonds. The bond proceeds are helping to finance the system's expansion of rail service to Washington Dulles International Airport.

Moody's Investors Service last week became the second national rating agency to place a negative outlook on Miami's debt because of the city's weakened financial position.

Moody's Investors Service Wednesday joined Fitch Ratings and dropped its underlying rating on Orlando, Fla.'s highly leveraged tourist-tax revenue bonds into junk territory, while Standard & Poor's placed the rating on negative watch.

The Virginia Resources Authority expects to price $109.9 million of new-money clean water bonds next week.

The city of Florence expects to competitively issue $99 million of refunding and new-money bonds for its water and sewer system on April 20.

Gov. Haley Barbour has signed the Mississippi School District Emergency Bridge Loan Act, which may be seeded with bond proceeds.

Plans to build a state hospital in midtown New Orleans with revenue bonds can go forward following a ruling by a U.S. district judge last week that the planning process complied with federal law.

The Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority meets today to continue working on a $4.1 billion plan of finance to build two new bridges across the Ohio River between the two states, and to reconfigure a major intersection in Louisville. The bi-state agency's agenda will include discussion about the selection of an advisory team.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue Tuesday announced that net revenue collections for March totaled $998.24 million compared to $987.98 million in March 2009, an increase of 1%. The slight rise was the first monthly increase since November 2008.