Economy

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.

The California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority on Wednesday authorized the issuance of up to $20 million of clean renewable energy bonds for the California Department of Transportation.

CHICAGO - Despite reservations about a still-weak market and uncertainty surrounding the federal highway trust fund, Ohio this week sold $375 million of grant anticipation revenue vehicle bonds, its largest Garvee deal ever.

Miami-Dade County commissioners, meeting Tuesday, authorized up to $1.9 billion of aviation revenue bonds to continue work on Miami International Airport’s $6.2 billion capital improvement program.

CHICAGO - States already struggling to meet Medicaid payments face spending increases next year that could outstrip their general fund growth by up to four times, according to a new report on the program released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The National Conference of State Legislatures is pushing for a temporary increase in the federal gasoline tax as part of its pitch to Congress on how the nation's highway funding program should be revamped. But states like Texas do not support a hike in the tax because they already get a disproportionately lower amount of funding from the program compared to the tax revenue they contribute.

The New Jersey Educational Facilities Authority yesterday approved up to $800 million of refinancing debt, including $575 million for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

With cash-strapped Illinois facing a backlog of Medicaid bills, Comptroller Dan Hynes this week called on federal authorities to increase Medicaid funding to Illinois and other states to ensure payments keep flowing to struggling service providers.

WASHINGTON - A Richmond circuit court judge for the second time dismissed a lawsuit challenging Virginia's planned transfer of the Dulles Toll Road from the state's Department of Transportation to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. The MWAA is slated to oversee the $5.2 billion Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport that will be partly financed by $2 billion of tax-exempt bonds.

CHICAGO - The Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority yesterday advanced the borrowing plans of four major health care systems totaling about $800 million in new-money and refunding debt, including $450 million from Froedtert & Community Health Inc.

Transportation systems throughout the U.S. are looking to address a backlog of needed capital projects, yet at the same time volatility in the municipal bond market and a changing investor base have made financing transportation infrastructure more challenging.

CHICAGO - Unable to access the frozen credit market to refund $60 million of bonds that were about to convert to auction-rate mode, a Kalamazoo, Mich.-based hospital last week turned to its parent company to purchase $40 million of the debt and used an emergency bridge loan to buy the remaining $20 million.

WASHINGTON - States are weighing whether to modify their long-term transportation finance plans because of questions about the future sustainability of the beleaguered federal highway trust fund, after some already were forced to shelve $1 billion of grant anticipation bond deals due to unfavorable market conditions.

DALLAS - With tax revenue falling dramatically, the Arizona State Transportation Board will examine its bonding capacity today with a view toward scaling back projects already on the drawing board.