Southeast

BRADENTON, Fla. — Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday chopped the underlying rating on Orlando, Fla.’s contract tourist development tax bonds to junk, to levels below where other rating agencies recently have cut the credit.

DALLAS — The Louisiana State Bond Commission has temporarily postponed refunding $500 million of outstanding state general obligation bonds until the Internal Revenue Service completes a routine audit of some of the issues.

DALLAS — Louisiana lawmakers and Gov. Bobby Jindal must fill a $319 million revenue gap in the fiscal 2010 budget in less than three months following the latest revision in expected revenues.

BRADENTON, Fla. — State officials this week gave the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund Finance Corp. the go-ahead to sell up to $710 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds for storm-related losses that occurred in 2005.

WASHINGTON — Davenport & Co. has hired two financial advisers for a new Charlotte office to bolster its services in the Southeast, the firm announced this week.

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.