Economy

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has not given up hope on nearly $2.7 billion of capital projects that officials last month proposed delaying until the 2010-2015 capital plan.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations yesterday unanimously approved transportation and housing spending for fiscal 2009, including full funding for the federal highway program plus $8 billion to shore up the ailing highway trust fund.

ATLANTA - North Carolina lawmakers have approved a roughly $22 billion budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which includes almost $900 million of borrowing.

CHICAGO - A gaming expansion bill - one of three funding sources for a $34 billion capital budget - failed during a special session of the Illinois House yesterday, one day after Gov. Rod Blagojevich sought to pressure lawmakers to pass the plan by vetoing $1.4 billion in spending from the fiscal 2009 operating budget.

CHICAGO -Fitch Ratings this week revised to negative its outlook on the U.S. health insurance and managed care sector.

CHICAGO - The University of Toledo will enter the market today with roughly $35 million of fixed-rate general receipts bonds in the first of two series that will refund recent notes used to take out all the system's insured variable-rate demand bonds.

The South Carolina Jobs-Economic Development Authority is readying a $19 million deal for the Kershaw County Medical Center.

The Adventist Health System-Sunbelt Obligated Group on Monday won a trio of rating upgrades from Moody’s Investors Service in conjunction with the conversion or addition of letters of credit from SunTrust Bank on three series of bonds.

BRADENTON, Fla. - A Tampa-based real estate broker specializing in the sale of senior housing communities has a new niche: the sale of distressed senior housing financed with tax-exempt bonds.

Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s last week downgraded their long-term ratings on BRCH Corp. Obligated Group, an acute-care hospital with 400 licensed beds in Boca Raton.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission last week approved a $5.8 billion, five-year construction program that officials warned will be limited to maintenance and safety work beginning late next year.

New York's Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, a credit of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is gearing up to sell $1 billion of revenue bonds tomorrow to help support capital projects on the system's bridges and tunnels.

CHICAGO - The Illinois Finance Authority board yesterday advanced borrowing plans totaling $500 million for health care facilities in the state, including up to $350 million for Northwest Community Hospital to finance a new patient tower and other projects and to refund existing debt.

Now that New Jersey's fiscal 2009 budget is signed, sealed, and delivered, attention in the Garden State turns once again to financing transportation infrastructure as two senators this week proposed allowing a private company to manage certain lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Standard & Poor’s last week revised the outlook to stable from negative on Morris Hospital and Healthcare Centers’ BBB-plus rating on $11 million of debt.

DALLAS - Integris Health will reduce its level of variable-rate demand debt with next week's negotiated sale of $222.7 million of fixed-rate hospital system revenue and refunding bonds by Oklahoma Development Finance Authority.

Pennsylvania will issue roughly $1.2 billion of general obligation and state appropriation debt in fiscal 2009 after Gov. Edward Rendell signed off on nearly $3 billion of borrowing to be issued over the next three to five years.

CHICAGO - Fitch Ratings last week placed West Bend, Wis.-based SynergyHealthInc.'s BBB-minus credit on rating watch for an upgrade in recognition of its newly minted affiliation with the stronger-rated Froedtert & Community HealthInc. system, based in Wauwatosa.

DALLAS - After winning a positive response from the market with a $125 million deal last month, the North Texas Tollway Authority is ready to continue its record year in debt issuance by pricing $1 billion of second-tier revenue bonds this week.

The New York Department of Health last week announced that it has amended the operating certificates of 18 health care facilities for failing to comply with the mandates of the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century.