Economy

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.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority sold $201.6 million of tax-exempt capital grant receipts bonds, Series 2011.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York on Wednesday approved $426 million of health care bonds for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Obligated Group. The 30-year bonds will be sold through negotiated sales.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo named a search committee to recommend candidates for the next chairman and chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Fitch Ratings upgraded Massachusetts’ special obligation highway revenue bonds to AA-plus from AA with a stable outlook. The agency said the move was part of its continuous surveillance effort.

CHICAGO - Detroit hopes to come to market in early September with up to $100 million of federal capital grant-backed bonds to finance part of a light-rail system along the city's main thoroughfare.

Cost estimates for California’s proposed high-speed rail project are starting to come in higher than expected, according to local press reports.

Los Angeles International Airport reported a 5.4% increase in passenger levels during the first half of 2011, nearly double what officials had been projecting.

The Internal Revenue Service has opened an audit of $31 million of health center revenue bonds issued in 2005 by the Lebanon County, Pa., Health Facilities Authority to refund bonds previously sold in 1999 for a retirement facility.

DALLAS - Colorado's Regional Transportation District has received confirmation of a $1.03 billion federal grant that is a key element in financing its $6.7 billion FasTracks program.

Florida plans to advance $3 billion of transportation projects, according to Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad.