News and Information from Bond Buyer

Fitch Ratings and Kroll Bond Rating Agency see the Chicago City Council’s passage of a record property tax as a good step toward stabilizing the city’s finances, though they say plenty of concerns remain.

A forensic inquiry into Jacksonville, Fla.’s Police and Fire Pension Fund says poor management and the lack of transparency by the fund’s board are among reasons for at least $370 million in losses.

Government

Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority officials were optimistic Friday that they would complete a debt restructuring agreement and pass related legislation quickly.

The Nassau County, N.Y. Legislature approved a $2.95 billion 2016 budget that could face rejection by a fiscal control board because of uncertain revenue assumptions.

Prices of top-shelf municipal bonds finished flat on Friday, traders said, ahead of the upcoming week’s new issue calendar.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is poised to recover nearly all of its anticipated $16 billion investment for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, according to New York University's Rudin Center for Transportation.

The nation's largest not-for-profit healthcare system — Ascension Health — will acquire the much smaller and lower-rated Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare's southeastern Wisconsin facilities.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Alan C. Stout scheduled a hearing for Dec. 9 to decide if Hillview, Ky. is qualified to continue through the bankruptcy process.

Analysts said issuers had already taken advantage of refunding opportunities earlier in the year, and that concern that Federal Reserve policy makers would raise rates from historic lows probably wasn’t a factor in the lack of refunding.

Virginia’s P3 project pipeline includes seven transportation-related projects that could be financed as public-private partnerships.

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority chairman and chief executive officer Richard Ketchum announced Friday he will retire in the second half of 2016.

A rally in the high-yield tobacco bond sector is being buoyed by a slowdown in cigarette consumption declines, a settlement in New York with the big tobacco companies, and demand for risk assets.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board answered dealer questions and provided guidance on its proposal to require dealers acting to disclose markups and markdowns.

How to fund repairs for crumbling infrastructure vexes the biggest of transit agencies and the smallest of states.

Prices of top-shelf municipal bonds were unchanged at mid-session, traders said, as traders cast their gaze ahead to next week's $6.2 billion new issue calendar.

The Treasury Department said it will auction $26 billion two-year notes on Wednesday, Nov. 4.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it raised its long-term rating and underlying rating to A-plus from A on Hawaii Airport System's previously issued senior-lien revenue bonds, and its long-term rating to A from A-minus on the system's series 2013 lease revenue subordinate-lien certificates of participation.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it lowered its rating on waterworks revenue-secured debt issued by or for Evansville, Ind., one notch to A-plus from AA-minus.