Economy

Spaceports are popping up all over the U.S., as both existing airports and brand new facilities position themselves to profit from a new age of commercial space travel and transport, but the industry is still in its infancy.

Catholic Health Initiatives of Colorado will carry $6 billion of debt after this week's issue of $1.5 billion of taxable bonds to expand its network, a fact that cost the health-care giant a downgrade from three ratings agencies.

Voters in unincorporated Ascension Parish, La., will vote on a 0.5% sales tax that would support $80 million of revenue bonds for road improvements.

The Louisiana will sell $350 million of state road bonds at one time rather than spreading the deal into three tranches, on the advice of Treasurer John Kennedy.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority's new chief executive, Keith T. Parker, signed a five-year contract with a base salary of $320,000 a year.

Moody's said the ongoing wave of mergers sweeping the non-profit health care sector led to an uptick in upgrades during the third quarter and could reverse earlier expectations that downgrades would outpace upgrades for the full year.

Elgin-Ill.-based Sherman Health System has signed a letter of intent to join Illinois' largest not-for-profit health care system Oak Brook, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed its AA rating and stable outlook on the Ohio Turnpike Commission ahead of an expected announcement by Gov. John Kasich of his plans to privatize the 241-mile toll road.

Miami-Dade County, Fla., this week prices the first of two deals that will bring nearly $1.5 billion of bonds to market within a month.

The Utah Transit Authority will complete financing for its 2015 rail projects and convert about half of its variable-rate bonds to fixed-rate in a $296.8 million deal next week.

The Arizona Department of Transportation said it will complete a route study for a commuter rail line linking Phoenix and Tucson.

Airports will continue to remain at risk for credit downgrades until passenger enplanements reach consistent growth of 3%, far above the flat-to-negative trajectory Moody's Investors Service expects.

The sudden breakup of hospital operator West Penn Allegheny's affiliation with insurer Highmark heightens uncertainty over hundreds of millions in bonds in a turnabout driven by adulterous sex and violence.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey authorized a $31.5 million rehabilitation of a taxiway at Newark Liberty International Airport.

WASHINGTON — Mileage-based systems could yield revenues between three and eight times higher than the gas taxes currently used to maintain the public road system and back bonds, the Congressional Budget Office found.

Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle Thursday unveiled a $2.9 billion spending plan that relies on the new federal health care law as well as a handful of new taxes to cure a $267 million shortfall.

Alaska voters decide on a $453 million transportation bond next month, though questions remain over a project at the Port of Anchorage that would receive $50 million in bond proceeds.

PortMiami's "Deep Dredge" harbor project will be mostly financed with bonds to ready the port for the Panama Canal expansion in early 2015. Miami-Dade County will pick up the federal costs to get the project done.

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority unveiled a proposed $1.5 billion budget for 2013 that banks on $1 billion in borrowing to finance projects planned under the system's $12 billion capital program.

Spanish infrastructure investment giant Cintra will be the private partner on a more than $1 billion public-private partnership to develop the Route 460 Corridor project in southeastern Virginia, sources said.