Economy

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles International Airport plans to sell $950 million of revenue bonds next month in its first major new-money issue in more than a decade.

The nation's governors are urging Congress to pass legislation that would offset the huge deficit projected for the highway trust fund in fiscal 2009.

CHICAGO — Standard & Poor's yesterday placed the A-plus underlying credit of Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Credit Watch with negative implications as the shuttered hospital struggles to recover from the devastating floods that have hit the Midwest.

DALLAS — Gilbert, Ariz., will begin an extensive, multi-year effort to widen streets throughout the Phoenix suburb with next week's competitive sale of $188 million of general obligation bonds.

DALLAS — Bonds supported by a 4 cents-a-gallon gasoline tax will not be sufficient to complete Louisiana's $4.9 billion Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development program as gas tax revenues fail to keep up with inflated construction costs.

SAN FRANCISCO The federal receiver charged with bringing California's prison health care system up to constitutional muster turned up the heat on state decision makers this week.

CHICAGO — The combined needs of struggling municipalities, financially strapped airlines, and labor could spark a national wave of interest in airport privatization if Chicago pulls off its plan to lease Midway Airport as expected, a key legal adviser on the proposal predicts.

WASHINGTON — Traffic congestion across the United States increased nearly 2% in 2007 over 2006, according to a report released yesterday by INRIX, a private company that analyzes national traffic patterns.

CHICAGO — The Indianapolis Airport Authority plans to enter the market June 25 with a $350 million variable-rate revenue bond sale that will mark the agency's last financing to pay for a $1.06 billion new project at Indianapolis International Airport.

DALLAS — Tulsa, Okla., Mayor Kathy Taylor has proposed a 12-year, $2 billion program to improve city streets to a satisfactory condition, including a plan to widen five streets from two lanes to four.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Miami-Dade County tomorrow is set to price $271.6 million of transit system sales-tax revenue bonds, which is shaping up to be the largest scheduled competitive sale of the week on The Bond Buyer's calendar.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Mississippi Department of Transportation is seeking prospective concessionaires to enter into the state's first public-private partnership to build a new toll road estimated to cost as much as $500 million.

WASHINGTON — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined three other mayors of metropolitan cities at a Senate Banking Committee hearing yesterday to push for more federal funding for transportation infrastructure, warning that state and local governments can no longer shoulder the costs alone.

The Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority will refinance up to $12 million of tax-exempt debt into taxable bonds within the next two weeks to help cover operating expenses at the Hoboken University Medical Center in New Jersey.

CHICAGO — A Michigan-based hospital system today will begin converting $125 million in auction-rate debt into a variable-rate mode, while next week Ohio's Lake Hospital System will price nearly $190 million of variable- and fixed-rate revenue bonds, in a pair of transactions that will allow the systems to exit the troubled auction-rate market.

SAN FRANCISCO - A $5 billion bond measure that was financed by a T. Boone Pickens-owned firm has qualified for the California ballot in November.

CHICAGO The Illinois Finance Authority this week advanced borrowing plans for a handful of nonprofits including $125 million for Northwestern University, which is undertaking nearly $1 billion in campus improvements, and $180 million for Advocate Health Care Network to finance its acquisition of Condell Health Network.

CHICAGO South Dakota-based regional health care provider Avera Health plans to enter the market tomorrow to sell $140 million of variable-rate demand bonds, one of three transactions that will replace all of its auction-rate securities.

New York Gov. David Paterson yesterday appointed 12 members to a blue ribbon commission to study the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's funding problems.

DALLAS - Major trends are influencing Dallas Area Rapid Transit's $740 million revenue bond deal this week.