Economy

State and regional transportation agencies will turn increasingly to public-private partnerships as a financing mechanism for highway, bridge, and transit projects as federal grants grow less certain in the near future, and as Congress searches for stable funding for the long-term, market participants and officials said this week at a P3 conference here.

Two rating agencies changed their outlooks for St. Anthony’s Medical Center in conjunction with their release of updated credit reviews.

Gary Ridley, director of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, has praised Congress for providing an $8 billion solution to the solvency crisis facing the federal Highway Trust Fund.

Voters in Hot Spring County and Chicot County last week approved increases in local sales taxes to help finance operations at hospitals in Malvern and Lake Village, respectively.

CHICAGO - William Beaumont Hospital plans to enter the market this week with $584 million of new-money and refunding revenue bonds, the first of three issues over the next several months.

The long-stalled Moynihan Station project in Manhattan needs to increase transportation capacity by expanding the number of tracks and platforms, New York Gov. David Paterson said last week.

WASHINGTON - Maryland Transportation Authority officials said yesterday that they plan to bring $425 million of grant anticipation revenue vehicle bonds to market in the coming weeks now that Congress and the Bush administration are moving toward enacting legislation that will transfer $8 billion of general funds to the beleaguered federal highway trust fund.

ATLANTA - Hospital systems throughout the country are trying to unload their auction-rate securities, and next week the Cape Fear Valley Health Center in North Carolina will join them.

WASHINGTON - Congress yesterday passed legislation that would transfer $8 billion to the ailing highway trust fund after the federal government warned it would run out of money by the end of the month and states began cutting transportation projects, some of which relied in part on tax-exempt bonds.

The Federal Highway Administration yesterday denied the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's application to implement tolls on Interstate 80, a move that could encourage state lawmakers to consider an alternative transportation financing plan, a $12.8 billion concession agreement on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

CHICAGO - More than $1.7 billion of borrowing is planned in the coming months by health care providers under a series of financings advanced this week by the Illinois Finance Authority board.

WASHINGTON - The Maryland Transportation Authority yesterday postponed its sale of $425 million of grant anticipation revenue vehicles in what could be the first of several stalled transactions following the federal government's announcement that the federal highway trust fund is nearly depleted.

DALLAS - Kansas will tap into an authorization of $150 million of taxable bonds for aviation projects in the state with a $33 million issue to help Cessna Aircraft Co. finance the expansion of an aircraft assembly plant in Wichita.

CHICAGO - Provena Health by the end of the month will petition the Illinois Supreme Court to review an appellate court opinion stripping one of the Mokena, Ill.-based system's hospitals of its property tax exemption.

CHICAGO - Ohio next week plans to enter the market with roughly $300 million of public infrastructure bonds backed by the state's full faith and credit as part of Gov. Ted Strickland's $1.57 billion economic stimulus plan.

New Jersey officials are moving ahead with proposed toll hikes on the state's three tolled highways while Republican lawmakers are calling for legislative hearings on the issue.

Wayne County Airport Authority officials are taking bids on naming rights for its new $431 million terminal at the Detroit Metro Airport. Officials said it is the first time an airport has sold naming rights for a terminal.

CHICAGO - The Illinois Finance Authority board yesterday approved the University of Chicago Medical Center's plan to restructure $185 million of insured variable-rate debt in a unanimous vote, which came after several protestors voiced complaints charging that the hospital discriminates against the area's poor African-Americans.

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday that he intends this week to pass a pending bill to rescue the nearly depleted highway trust fund and prevent the government from delaying payments to states, despite the successful efforts by two Republican senators to block passage of the bill Monday evening.

New York Gov. David Paterson said yesterday that two different project plans are on the table for a new Moynihan Station and that transportation issues - like rerouting service to a new station - still need to be worked out between Amtrak and other transit agencies that would use the station.