Economy

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.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine yesterday announced his plan to increase transportation infrastructure projects and school construction over the next six to eight months to support job growth and help bolster the state's softening economy.

DALLAS - The Louisiana State Bond Commission yesterday decided to delay until next year a scheduled forward-purchase sale of $485 million of gasoline and fuel tax revenue bonds to avoid a swap-termination fee of up to $25 million.

DALLAS - Using state loan guarantees as a new form of debt insurance, the North Texas Tollway Authority yesterday agreed to build another $1.3 billion turnpike, despite misgivings by some board members about how the financing might affect future projects.

Nine members have been appointed to the state’s Southeast Regional Airport Authority, which will determine if Louisiana should take over New Orleans’s Louis Armstrong International Airport.

CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Illinois State Toll Highway Authority officials yesterday unveiled a $1.8 billion, bond-financed plan to build new interstate-to-interstate interchanges and add bus and ride-sharing commuter lanes to the busiest stretches of the 286-mile toll system.

New Orleans has made an unspecified offer in another attempt to buy the hurricane-damaged Methodist Hospital in the eastern part of the city. The purchase would be financed from a $411 million pool of federal recovery money dedicated to projects in New Orleans.

The Chicago Transit Authority last week proposed raising light-rail train and bus fares by 25 cents and monthly passes to $90 from $75 to help cover a looming deficit due to poor tax collections amid rising expenses for employees and fuel.