Southeast

BRADENTON, Fla. — Facing a budget shortfall of $1.5 billion over the next two years, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear told lawmakers late Wednesday that efforts so far to restructure debt and cut expenses won’t be enough for the state to avoid more “painful decisions about where we spend money.”

BRADENTON, Fla. — Miami-Dade County next week plans to offer $600 million of aviation revenue bonds to continue financing for a major capital improvement program at Miami International Airport that is nearing completion.

WASHINGTON — The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority yesterday announced a financing team for $250 million to $600 million of bonds it plans to sell in the spring to help finance the Dulles International Airport Metrorail extension.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida today expects to complete negotiated pricing of $263.4 million of Florida Forever revenue bonds, representing the last debt authorized for the state’s long-running environmental and conservation land-protection program.

Sean Connaughton, appointed by governor-elect Robert F. McDonnell to be secretary of transportation, will be jumping into his new position a month after the Virginia Department of Transportation lowered its revenue estimates for fiscal 2010.

Louisiana state Sen. Jack Donahue, R-Covington, told the Press Club of Baton Rouge this week that the Legislature should develop its own plan for dealing with a proposed $3 billion revenue shortfall over the next two fiscal years.

A federal judge in Birmingham Monday delayed the sentencing of Montgomery bond dealer William Blount and Alabama lobbyist Albert LaPierre. Both men pleaded guilty last year to pay-to-play charges related to Jefferson County’s troubled sewer debt and were scheduled to be sentenced today.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Standard & Poor’s yesterday affirmed its A-minus rating, with a stable outlook, on the Prichard Waterworks and Sewer Board in Alabama.

More than $1 billion of bond-financed projects planned by Virginia could be delayed as the state’s new governor confronts billion-dollar deficits for fiscal 2010 and 2011.

DALLAS — Louisiana state agencies have proposed $248 million of budget cuts for the remainder of fiscal 2010 as called for by Gov. Bobby Jindal as revenues continue to drop.