Economy

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.

CHICAGO - Wisconsin's largest local governments face a collective $6 billion unfunded liability for retiree health care benefits, with Milwaukee-area governments and school districts representing about $4.5 billion of the total, according to a new study from a local government policy watchdog group.

DALLAS - With construction and fuel costs soaring, metro Denver's Regional Transportation District is considering five options for covering a $2.3 billion funding shortfall for the FasTracks rail system.

Even as Chicago prepares to open a new runway at O’Hare International Airport, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration last week said future air traffic demand will require much more flight capacity in the region.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board last week approved a second proton therapy center to treat cancer in the Chicago area, despite concerns that the region can’t support two centers.

ATLANTA - Once hailed as a means to spur economic development in the Greenville, S.C.-area, the Southern Connector toll road has failed to live up to expectations and the debt issued by the Connector 2000 Association to build the road is now in jeopardy.

House Democrats are working on a continuing resolution to extend federal spending at fiscal 2008 levels through March 6, including a potential stopgap measure to continue for five months the Federal Aviation Administration's authority to provide grants that are sometimes used in conjunction with tax-exempt bonds for airport projects.

Indiana has agreed to reimburse the private operator of the Indiana Toll Road after the state waived toll fees along parts of the roadway last week to ease traffic congestion resulting from storms that flooded sections of other major roadways.

DALLAS - Rapidly growing Williamson County, Tex., hired a public relations firm to help it gather opinions on a proposal to expand a heavily used road and to articulate plans for all road projects.

Arkansas transportation officials said the state kept sufficient money on hand to make its semiannual debt payments on $575 million of outstanding highway bonds even if Congress had not shifted $8 billion into the rapidly shrinking federal Highway Trust Fund.

Dallas County Judge Jim Foster is leading the campaign for a $747 million bond issue that would finance the replacement of the existing Parkland Hospital.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority will not restructure its variable-rate demand bonds for the time being despite spikes in interest rates last week, the MTA said yesterday.

CHICAGO - The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission voted last week to drop its first-of-a-kind plan to use $700 million of private-activity bonds under a federal pilot program to repair 802 bridges in favor of issuing Garvee bonds after the original plan grew too expensive due to the credit crunch.

WASHINGTON - Debt service coverage on highway user revenue fund bonds should remain more than sufficient, and the ratings of those bonds should remain stable, even as gasoline prices have spiked to record highs, causing people to drive fewer miles over the past year, a Standard & Poor's report said.