Economy

Minnesota Metropolitan Airports Commission board members last week asked the agency’s staff to renegotiate some terms of a proposed agreement that would allow Delta Air Lines Inc. to close its local Northwest Airlines Corp. headquarters without triggering repayment of $245 million of debt.

It may be a new year, but problems with derivatives continue to plague the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority after officials spent all of 2008 tackling its costly swap agreements.

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell warned yesterday that the national infrastructure reinvestment bank is in danger of being tabled as an option for states and localities to finance projects.

DALLAS - Louisiana legislators on Friday approved without changes the $341 million of current-year budget cuts proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal to deal with declines in state revenue resulting from steep drops in energy prices.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department said it hopes to obtain almost $400 million for projects from the proposed federal infrastructure stimulus program.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is facing a $176 million gap in its $1.7 billion fiscal 2010 budget that will likely force service cuts and the elimination of 891 jobs, but WMATA officials said they will not increase fares.

WASHINGTON - House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Jim Oberstar has proposed a spending package totaling $85 billion to be included in forthcoming stimulus or economic recovery legislation.

WASHINGTON - The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has received final approval and a promise of $900 million of funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation for its $5.2 billion Dulles Metrorail extension project, which will be financed with $2 billion of bonds beginning in April.

DALLAS - Stephen F. Austin State University will issue $23 million of revenue bonds next week to build a nursing school and expand other buildings on its Nacogdoches, Tex., campus.

Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine on Monday appointed deputy secretary of transportation Barbara Reese as deputy policy director for his office.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority said Monday that its fiscal crisis has worsened since it took measures to deal with a $60 million budget shortfall in mid-December.

As the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey gears up for a long-awaited refinancing, questions continue over its billing and financial practices.

WASHINGTON - The current financial crisis that has caused Treasury rates to plummet has created a boom in demand for a 10-year-old federal program that offers low-interest loans, pegged to Treasury rates, to transportation departments and private investors. But there is no longer enough funding in the TIFIA program to meet the growing demand, according to transportation experts and market participants.

DALLAS - Oklahoma has identified 100 highway projects across the state that could begin construction as early as March if Congress passes a proposed multibillion-dollar transportation infrastructure stimulus package.

Standard & Poor’s last week downgraded MetroHealth System to BBB-plus from A-minus due to weak operating results. The action affects $28.8 million of variable-rate bonds issued in 2003 through Cuyahoga County. The bonds carry a letter of credit but Standard & Poor’s does not rate it.

DALLAS - With its own future in question, the Texas Department of Transportation is abandoning the Trans-Texas Corridor as a planning concept, executive director Amadeo Saenz said yesterday.

Virgin Galactic last week signed a 20-year lease agreement that calls for the tourist spaceflight provider to establish its headquarters in New Mexico and base its operations at the state-owned Spaceport America.

SAN FRANCISCO - The largest public housing finance agency in the country has stopped most mortgage lending and is working to deleverage its balance sheet to help it weather the sharpest housing downturn in its three decade history.

Columbia St. Mary and Froedtert & Community Health’s partnership is now on hold due to economic conditions.

Standard & Poor’s earlier this month downgraded Crittenton Hospital Medical Center’s debt to A from A-plus due to economic challenges facing the hospital.