Economy

CHICAGO - After years of near financial collapse, Detroit's largest safety-net hospital is enjoying its fourth straight year of operating profitability and now hopes to enter the bond market for the first time in a decade to generate proceeds that would continue to bolster that performance.

New York will study the potential privatization of state assets through long-term leases, Gov. David Paterson announced yesterday. Public-private partnerships could allow the state to leverage its assets to make investments in long-term infrastructure projects, the governor's office said.

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority’s executive director, Brian McPartlin, announced last week he would step down later this month to take a private-sector job.

WASHINGTON - Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials postponed the sale of $175 million airport system revenue bonds that was scheduled to come to market today in a negotiated deal after market conditions remained uncertain yesterday.

CHICAGO - Chicago would receive $2.52 billion under a pioneering lease agreement that, if approved by city and federal authorities, would hand over operations of Midway Airport to a private consortium - Midway Investment and Development Co. LLC - for 99 years, Mayor Richard Daley announced yesterday.

Fitch Ratings assigned a negative watch to the outstanding debt issued through the Indiana Health Facilities Financing Authority on behalf of retirement facility Marquette Manor.

DALLAS - Utah lawmakers are bracing for a difficult regular legislative session in January after covering a $354 million budget shortfall in a special session last week.

CHICAGO - The Civic Federation of Chicago, a local, business-funded government watchdog group, is launching a new institute with a multi-year grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation aimed at highlighting Illinois' fiscal health and influencing policy decisions.

Congress over the weekend approved and delivered to President Bush a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government at current levels for more than five months and authorize $6.5 billion of bond-related community development funds. But a multibillion-dollar economic stimulus package that was approved in the House Friday seemed unlikely to get full congressional approval as of yesterday.

CHICAGO - Following Chicago's lead, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is advancing plans to pursue the privatization of Mitchell International Airport, including $500,000 in his proposed $1.4 billion 2009 budget to hire a consultant to help put together a lease deal.

DALLAS - With $756 million of debt waiting to be issued, Denver is hoping conditions might improve enough today to get one of three deals out the door.

CHICAGO - Chicago-based Ziegler Capital Markets is seizing on business opportunities arising from the turmoil at Wall Street's investment banks, adding 17 professionals to its tax-exempt staff and pursuing business with larger hospitals that might feel neglected by their Wall Street bankers.

WASHINGTON - The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for months has been planning to bring $175 million of revenue bonds to market in a negotiated deal on Wednesday. But MWAA officials, like those of many other issuers, say the pricing of their deal will depend on what, if any, action Congress takes over the weekend to quell turmoil in the financial markets.

New York plans to replace the aging Tappan Zee Bridge with a new $16 billion bridge and bus rapid transit system that would include commuter rail, the state announced Friday.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority last week reviewed different toll-increase scenarios in order to generate needed revenue.

Time is running out on a $12.8 billion proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 75 years as the measure continues to stall in committee and could fail to receive a formal vote before the legislature's two-year session ends on Dec. 31.

Senate Democratic leaders unveiled a second economic stimulus package yesterday that would provide $56.2 billion in federal funding, including large infusions of cash to finance highway infrastructure and airport construction, and bond-related state revolving funds for wastewater projects.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service has closed an examination of $373 million of airport revenue bonds that were issued in 2005 by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission with no change to the tax-exempt status of the bonds, it was announced Wednesday.

CHICAGO - Despite remaining largely insulated from the turmoil in the capital markets so far, the years-long strong operating performance across the nonprofit health care sector could be headed for a decline in 2009, particularly among smaller, lower-rated credits, Fitch Ratings analysts said in a report on median ratios on the industry released yesterday.

DALLAS - Amid market upheaval and presidential warnings of a Wall Street panic, the North Texas Tollway Authority yesterday closed on $609 million of system revenue bonds as it exited a swap agreement with the defunct Lehman Brothers Derivative Products on a previous deal.