Economy

CHICAGO - Michigan lawmakers wrapped up their 2008 session Friday with the approval of a long sought-after measure to advance a bond-funded plan to expand Detroit's Cobo Center as well as a plan to build a light-rail line that could play a key role in the development of a regional southeastern Michigan transportation system.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Transportation has misled the public and lawmakers by claiming that the highway trust fund has been depleted by declining gas tax revenues, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association charged in a memo to congressional staff and reporters Friday.

San Francisco is making plans to sell $136 million of one-year bond anticipation notes next month to finance the first phase of the rebuilding of San Francisco General Hospital.

New York State should consider privatizing assets and using design-build strategies to fill funding gaps for capital projects, a state commission said in a preliminary report yesterday. The report identifies transportation and education projects as candidates for public-private partnerships.

Transportation stakeholders in Congress, lobbyists, and industry officials yesterday lauded Republican Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Department of Transportation, because of his management abilities and bipartisan credentials, despite his thin resume on transportation.

DALLAS - The Texas Transportation Commission approved a $1 billion issue yesterday after learning that the state may need as much as $313 billion to build and maintain highways through 2030.

CHICAGO - The Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois yesterday approved a $2.6 billion budget for next year that relies on federal aid to fund capital projects amid the ongoing drought in new state borrowing.

Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP has named Irene Walsh as managing director and head of its U.S. infrastructure and project finance advisory practice, while also hiring James Ziglar Jr. as a senior vice president.

CHICAGO - Fitch Ratings this week lowered its rating to A-minus from A on roughly $215 million of outstanding debt issued for the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport as the airport faces impending service cuts by its largest carrier, Delta Air Lines Inc., which is merging its operations with Northwest Airlines Corp.

DALLAS - A Sunset Advisory Commission vote to abolish the Texas Transportation Commission - the largest issuer of state debt in Texas - sets up another legislative showdown over highway funding when lawmakers convene in Austin next month.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has raised its proposed compensation to Louisiana for hurricane-related damages to Charity Hospital in New Orleans to $150 million from an initial $23 million.

Gov. Charlie Crist has been asked by Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz to reconsider the Florida Department of Transportation’s decision not to close the deal on the $1.2 billion Port of Miami Tunnel project.

WASHINGTON - Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., was reported yesterday to be President-elect Barack Obama's pick for Secretary of Transportation, surprising experts in the field who had thought other candidates were more obvious choices for the post.

Yeshiva University's tax-exempt bonds have been hammered this week as the private, nonprofit university acknowledged potential losses in an investment scheme and a shrinking endowment.

CHICAGO - The Minnesota Metropolitan Airports Commission will hold a special meeting next week to discuss a tentative agreement that would allow Delta Air Lines Inc. to close its former Northwest Airlines Corp. headquarters in Eagan without triggering the immediate repayment of $245 million of debt.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey both passed their 2009 budgets yesterday, but their fiscal circumstances couldn't be more different.

CHICAGO - As unlikely as it may seem, Michigan can provide something of a model for states facing revenue and job losses stemming from a deteriorating U.S. automobile industry, Moody's Investors Service analysts said yesterday after releasing a report on the likely impacts from the fallout.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick will begin searching for a new transportation secretary after Bernard Cohen on Monday resigned from the post.

The Oklahoma Transportation Commission last week approved spending up to $9 million to hire nine engineering consulting firms to ensure that $180 million of road projects would be ready to go out for bids quickly if Congress approves an infrastructure stimulus package in January.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Florida Department of Transportation on Friday suddenly pulled the plug on the long-awaited $1.2 billion Port of Miami tunnel project and said it would not close on the state's largest pubic-private partnership with the consortium known as Miami Access Tunnel.