Economy

Fitch Ratings last week dropped the Citrus County Hospital Board, Fla.’s bonds, issued on behalf of Citrus Memorial Health Foundation Inc., to BB-minus from BB-plus. The downgrade affects $39.4 million of outstanding debt.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Georgia has restarted the Northwest Corridor congestion-reliever project in the Atlanta metropolitan region using a traditional approach to its construction and funding, as opposed to a public-private partnership.

DALLAS — Top Louisiana officials said Monday that higher education and public health would be devastated by fiscal 2013 spending cuts mandated by a budget passed late last week by the House.

CHICAGO – Janesville, Wis.-based Mercy Alliance Inc. will issue $172 million of new-money and refunding bonds Wednesday in a deal that will shed floating-rate risk in the hospital's debt portfolio.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder last Thursday met with top Canadian officials to talk about a proposed $4 billion, publicly funded trade bridge spanning the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, according to local reports.

Chicago announced an agreement Monday with Aeroterm LLC to begin construction on a new, $200 million cargo center at O’Hare International Airport.

State transportation officials, engineers, construction firms and transportation advocacy groups are urging lawmakers working on a final highway bill to support the use of new tax-credit bonds to finance transportation projects.

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to soon sign legislation shifting more of the funding burden for retiree health care to recipients, a move projected to save more than $250 million annually and shave billions off the state’s other post-employment benefits unfunded liability.

DALLAS — When financial markets were collapsing in 2008, the North Texas Tollway Authority faced the challenge of raising $3.2 billion to pay for its most ambitious project, the State Highway 121 toll road connecting the far northern Dallas suburbs to the NTTA's existing system.

A recent poll found a slim majority of Arkansas voters oppose a plan to raise the sales tax rate to finance a $1.8 billion highway construction program.

New Hampshire will return to the market with Garvee bonds for the second time in two years as work to widen Interstate 93 continues.

The nation's governors are urging House and Senate conferees working on a final highway bill to avoid doing anything that would restrict flexibility for tax-exempt financing or have a chilling effect on public-private partnerships.

The Suffolk County, N.Y., Legislature on Tuesday voted to have employees pay for part of the cost of their health insurance for the first time in the Long Island county’s history.

WASHINGTON — Rep. G.K. Butterfield has introduced a bill that would curb the power of federal and state officials to toll interstate highways, just as tolls are increasingly seen by transportation officials as a key alternative to offsetting waning federal gas tax revenues for project funding.

WASHINGTON — Executives of two rail organizations that rely on municipal bonds to finance some projects told international advisory firm KPMG that getting stakeholders and policymakers to buy into and embrace a cultural shift will be key to successfully financing large fast-rail networks.

Moody’s Investors Service Tuesday upgraded to B1 from B3 the rating on Southern California University of Health Science’s Series 1997 bonds and also revised the outlook to positive from negative on $7.5 million of outstanding bonds.

California’s Legislative Counsel says the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s $93 million purchase of a building in San Francisco, using bridge toll money, violates state law.

LOS ANGELES — A bankruptcy judge has approved the Las Vegas Monorail Co.'s reorganization plan, allowing it to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy while nearly wiping out the investment made by bondholders.

The New York State Thruway Authority plans to finance the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge mostly through toll-backed bonding, executive director Thomas Madison said.

DALLAS — The Kansas House adopted a $14.4 billion budget for fiscal 2013 late Tuesday that takes money from Department of Transportation revenues to raise public education funding by $50 million.