Economy

CHICAGO — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is floating a draft bill to advance a controversial and long-stalled $3.8 billion, partially bond-financed bridge spanning the busy trade route between Detroit and Canada.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A massive overhaul of Virginia’s transportation program will enable the state over the next three years to fund $4 billion of road, rail, and transit projects supported by increased bonding capacity and new financing programs.

The Delaware River and Bay Authority could raise Delaware Memorial Bridge tolls by $1 on July 1 to help finance nearly $200 million of capital needs during the next five years.

Gov. Rick Scott Monday named Ananth Prasad as secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation.

DALLAS — Isolux Corsan Group, a private Spanish developer, could finance and build the next major link in a beltway around the Denver metro area if it reaches agreement with the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority.

Heartland Regional Medical Center received positive credit news from both Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad last week made good on his promise to reject any one-year spending bills by vetoing a measure that provided about $350 million for transportation programs in fiscal 2012.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic will enter the market Wednesday and shift $290 million of variable-rate securities to a fixed-rate structure to open up room in its debt portfolio for future floating-rate debt that would finance two proton therapy centers.

The Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority, which oversees the Garcon Point Bridge in north Florida, appears to be headed for default in July.

CHICAGO — Indiana University Health Inc., the state’s largest health care system, on Monday will price $228.2 million of variable-rate bonds in the first of three borrowings that will total nearly $800 million.

DALLAS — Sen. David Vitter, R-La., met last week with federal officials to oppose Louisiana’s request for credit enhancement on $400 million of revenue bonds for a new $1.2 billion teaching hospital in New Orleans.

DALLAS — The Texas Transportation Commission has cleared the way for financing a $1.6 billion toll road in Dallas County that leverages a federal loan and the TTC’s strong credit ratings.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority expects to launch a program in the coming months that links state Medicaid providers with private investors willing to purchase overdue payment vouchers in case lawmakers fail to act on Gov. Pat Quinn’s $2 billion borrowing plan to ease the state’s liquidity crisis.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Government-owned hospitals in Florida will come under scrutiny by a panel appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to review whether they are in the best interest of taxpayers.

SAN FRANCISCO — A nonprofit mental-health service provider in Los Angeles County has gone belly-up, leaving a state-backed insurer on the hook for more than $5 million of bonds.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott Monday took credit for federal budget cuts to high-speed rail funding that were in the continuing resolution signed by President Obama over the weekend.

DALLAS — The Texas Department of Transportation would get another $3 billion of bond authorization under a proposal from the chairman of the state Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, but he said finding a long-term solution to the chronic problem of highway funding is not likely in the current session.

Moody’s Investors Service this week downgraded to Baa2 from A3 $16.1 million of revenue bonds issued by the Capital Region Airport Authority, which serves the state capital of Lansing.

Moody’s Investors Service this week put Loyola University Chicago’s A3 rating on watchlist for a possible upgrade in recognition of the positive impact on its credit profile expected from the school’s upcoming sale of its health system.

WASHINGTON — House Transportation Committee chairman Rep. John Mica on Monday charged the Obama administration failed to justify many of the high-speed rail and so-called TIGER transportation grants it made to state and local governments.