Economy

ATLANTA - The Atlanta Development Authority yesterday approved funding recommendations for six projects within one of the city's first tax allocation districts, the Westside TAD. The projects would be funded in part from proceeds of a new bond issue expected to total $110 million.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved an $887 million general obligation bond measure that would pay to rebuild the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center if approved by voters in November.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Bay Area Toll Authority in California plans to restructure its entire $2.4 billion portfolio of Ambac Assurance Corp.-backed variable-rate debt in the coming months, its second major debt restructuring spurred by insurer downgrades this year.

Port authorities in Georgia and South Carolina will share ownership of the Jasper Ocean Terminal site located in South Carolina under plans set for approval next week.

CHICAGO - New York City-based Cain Brothers & Co. is extending its Midwestern reach with the opening of a new St. Louis office that will house former Wachovia Securities LLC health care bankers Joseph Mulligan and Sara Kisner.

DALLAS — The rapidly growing South Texas town of Pharr needs to update aging infrastructure but years of financial mismanagement have led to a low investment-grade rating with a negative outlook.

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, in its mid-year status report released Tuesday, said that much of its capital improvement program has been completed.

The New York State Thruway Authority will initiate a new procedure intended to increase participation of minority-owned firms in underwriting when it goes to market with the sale of up to $1 billion of bonds next month.

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow the commonwealth to extend its financial guarantee on $2.2 billion of Massachusetts Turnpike Authority debt - a move that would allow the authority to use the state's higher credit rating yet at the same time increase its outstanding bond obligation.

CHICAGO - Cleveland is expected to issue nearly $290 million of variable-rate airport revenue bonds today in a transaction that marks the city's last major refinancing in its months-long effort to convert all of its outstanding auction-rate securities.

CHICAGO - The Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority yesterday approved three transactions tied to borrowers' efforts to exit the auction-rate market. They include a $152 million deal from Children's Hospital and Health System of Wisconsin Inc. that will mark the second use in the tax-exempt market of a floating-rate structure promoted by Goldman, Sachs & Co.

A DuPage County Circuit Court judge is expected to rule next week on whether Chicago can demolish about 500 properties in suburban Bensenville to clear the path for a new runway at O’Hare International Airport.

In another blow to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s plan to sell Detroit’s half of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the City Council in Windsor, Ontario, last week instructed its top lawyer to halt negotiations after some Detroit council members said they still have doubts about the deal despite having voted in favor of establishing an operating authority.

In its push to gain federal approval to implement tolls on I-80, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission yesterday announced a proposed $2.5 billion capital plan to update 83% of the Interstate's roadway and replace 60 of its bridges over the next 10 years.

DALLAS - The Texas Public Finance Authority will give investors a chance to grab some of its general obligation debt this week as the agency issues $225 million of bonds for refunding and new money.

The Port of Galveston has secured a $28.1 million loan from the Texas Industry Development Loan Program for improvements that include a channel-deepening project and renovation of aging public docks.

The financial advisory firm Frasca & Associates LLC has added a banker and credit analyst to its team.

New York issuers will dominate the new-issue activity this week as both the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority come to the primary market amid an anticipated slate of $7.5 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

CHICAGO - Flint, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care Corp. will enter the market tomorrow with $204 million of fixed-rate revenue bonds in the first of two series that together will refinance all the system's so-called indexed put bonds as well as a portion of debt taken on with a pair of recent acquisitions.

The Senate is poised to consider legislation that would extend a Texas tolling ban through September 2009. The moratorium extension was added as an amendment to transportation and housing appropriations legislation that cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.