Economy

WASHINGTON - The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority sought court action yesterday to prevent it from having to make a $43 million termination payment on a sale-leaseback deal guaranteed by American International Group Inc. Meanwhile, House committee leaders pushed for federal assistance for more than 30 of the nation's largest transit agencies "at risk of default and financial collapse" because of similar deals.

A dispute between Louisiana State University and Tulane University over the composition of the oversight board for the proposed new $1.2 billion LSU academic hospital in downtown New Orleans has delayed the state’s plan to issue up to $400 million of revenue bonds for the facility.

WASHINGTON - State and local government officials told congressional lawmakers in two separate hearings yesterday that they need billions of dollars of direct aid from the federal government to combat the fiscal challenges they are facing.

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board is expected this week to name Jeffrey S. Dailey to fill the executive director's spot left vacant by the departure of Brian McPartlin.

A bill pending in Michigan Legislature would allow for the creation of a nonprofit street railway company — with the authority to issue bonds — to further an effort to build a $103 million light-rail system in Detroit.

New Jersey officials are working on issuing smaller tranches of New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority debt than in previous years to better match current market conditions.

Despite declining toll revenues, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is considering bond issues to expand three turnpikes, officials said.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey faces new allegations of inflating medical costs by at least $21 million a year and increasing federal reimbursements for the hospital, according to a weekend report in the Newark Star-Ledger.

CHICAGO - The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission and its finance team are watching the market closely to decide whether or not to proceed as soon as next week with Missouri's long-planned, first-time issuance of Garvee bonds in a $150 million sale.

State transportation officials are calling for Congress to pass legislation next year that would remove the $15 billion federal volume cap on private-activity bonds for transportation financing, authorize the issuance of tax-credit bonds to fund surface transportation programs, and distribute of 90% of federal transportation funds to the states.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is considering terminating two leaseback transactions and replacing or restructuring the collateral on another following the downgrade of American International Group, which had insured the transactions, the agency said yesterday at a finance committee meeting.

DALLAS - State and local governments in the Southwest are asking voters to approve more than $10 billion of bonds on a presidential election ballot expected to draw a record turnout a week from today.

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department must take the place of American International Group Inc. as guarantor of transit agency sale-leaseback deals to avoid "financial disaster" for state and local governments, a group of lawmakers warned Treasury and Federal Reserve officials yesterday.

SAN FRANCISCO - As the auction-rate securities market meltdown raged this spring, San Francisco International Airport rushed to restructure hundreds of millions of dollars of ARS with variable-rate demand obligations, trying to beat other issuers to the market before liquidity dried up.

CHICAGO -The Illinois Finance Authority last week advanced borrowing plans totaling nearly $1.5 billion for health care, higher education institutions, and other nonprofits, including a $375 million sale planned by Rush University Medical Center and $500 million for the University of Chicago.

WASHINGTON — State officials and lawmakers Friday were holding emergency meetings and pressing the Treasury Department to rescue public transit deals facing billions of dollars of payments.

DALLAS - With a deadline less than a month away, the North Texas Tollway Authority managed to complete the takeout of $3.5 billion of bond anticipation notes with the sale of $425 million of revenue bonds last week.

In separate actions Tuesday, Fitch Ratings took a negative view of both the seaport and airport revenue bonds of the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Ports Authority.

New Jersey officials yesterday approved a $169 million bond deal for Solaris Health System that will benefit from the state's appropriation pledge as the transaction falls under New Jersey's Hospital Asset Transformation Program.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed a local economic stimulus plan this week and said his staff is preparing budget cuts to keep the general fund balanced as the economy slows.