Economy

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco International Airport will sell $450 million of refunding bonds this week in a quick follow-up to a deal earlier this summer in order to take advantage of a favorable market.

CHICAGO — A committee of Indiana legislators will hold the first in a series of hearings today to review the state's infrastructure needs — estimated at $5.4 billion with an $800 million annual shortfall going forward — as proceeds from the long-term lease of the Indiana Toll Road are set to run out by 2015.

The Bond Oversight Commission will hear a request Thursday from the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority for $178 million of 20-year revenue bonds. The authority will use the proceeds to add lanes to road sections in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

A 2011 bill transferring $101.7 million from a highway transportation revolving fund into the general fund was constitutional, Oklahoma solicitor general Patrick Wyrick contended last week in a hearing before a state Supreme Court referee.

A week of noise involving unions and commuters ended quietly in a Manhattan conference room on Friday, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey board of commissioners approved a set of toll and fare increases that the states' governors modified.

WASHINGTON - Garvee bond ratings are at risk from the increasingly unpredictable budget and policy process in Washington, Standard & Poor's warned in a report released Friday.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s board of commissioners cited the need to maintain a high bond rating Friday morning in approving a set of toll and fare hikes for the region after the states’ governors softened the blow.

CHICAGO - Public hearings began Thursday on the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority's proposed 15-year, $12 billion, partially bond-financed capital program ahead of a possible board vote next week at which one board member will push an alternative.

BRADENTON, Fla. - A stalled beltway project near Jacksonville in northeast Florida will get a partial kick-start with the construction of a bond-financed segment, state officials announced Wednesday.

CHICAGO - A trio of nonprofit hospitals in the Chicago area, including the prominent Northwestern Memorial's Prentice Women's Hospital, are expected to appeal the Illinois Department of Revenue's decision earlier this week to deny them their property-tax exemptions for failing to provide sufficient charity care.

CHICAGO - Novi, Mich.-based Trinity Health Corp. received preliminary approval from the Illinois Finance Authority board this week for its planned sale of about $550 million of debt tied to its recent acquisition of Loyola University Health System in suburban Chicago.

DALLAS - Amid rising sales tax revenue and an improving economy, Phoenix is considering a bond issue to revive plans for a $288 million extension of the metro area's new light-rail system.

WASHINGTON - Lurking in the legislative weeds on Capitol Hill is another threat to states' and localities' ability to fund bond-financed and other transportation projects.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service has closed an audit of the Highlands County Health Facilities Authority's 2005 refunding bonds with no change to their tax-exempt status.

Standard & Poor's this week upgraded Allina Hospitals & Clinics rating one notch to AA-minus due to its strong operations.

More than 80 people, including members of Michigan's Senate Economic Development Committee, embarked Monday on a fact-finding tour of proposed sites for a controversial plan to build a publicly funded bridge over the Detroit River.

Moody's Investors Service raised its rating on the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation by one notch to A1, affecting $75 million of debt, due to its increasingly close affiliation with Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and an improving fiscal position.

CHICAGO - Nonprofit health care issuers already bracing for steep government reimbursement cuts from the new federal health care law now face a new round of cuts tied to the debt-ceiling deal.

The dominoes continue to fall in Rhode Island as Moody’s Investors Service downgraded East Providence to Baa1 from A1, while on the same day it lowered to A2 from Aa3 the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp.’s revenue bond financing program.

Puerto Rico received 12 responses from infrastructure funds, U.S. private-equity firms, Canadian pensions, and developers based in Spain and India to a request for qualifications for a privatization of up to 50 years of its principal airport, near the capital, San Juan.