Economy

DALLAS — The Port Authority of Houston is issuing $300 million of general obligation debt this week to take out commercial paper for the port’s expansion and refund bonds sold in 2008.

Moody’s Investors Service revised its outlook to stable from negative on Wheaton Franciscan Services Inc.’s Baa2 rating, citing progress in turning around its financial performance.

Standard & Poor’s last week revised its outlook to stable from negative and affirmed its A-minus rating on Memorial Hospital and Health Center, a 131-bed hospital located in the town of Jasper.

Airports may begin seeking more public-private partnership agreements as financing needs mount and more private investors step forward, market participants said at a panel here last week.

DALLAS — Phoenix is preparing to issue $710 million of revenue bonds next week to ­finance a five-mile automated transit system linking Sky Harbor International Airport’s terminal to the city’s new light-rail line as well as parking and rental car facilities.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority hopes to replace a $634 million bond transaction scheduled for September with commercial paper, an agency official said Monday.

DALLAS — Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service expect to assign their lowest investment-grade rating to $404 million of tax-exempt private-activity bonds for a commuter rail line connecting downtown Denver to Denver International Airport.

WASHINGTON — Florence County, S.C., will begin issuing $122.4 million of revenue bonds Monday for several projects at the McLeod Regional Medical Center as the hospital chain has demonstrated credit strength despite a struggling regional economy and the changing health care environment.

Barclays Capital will serve as senior manager on a $1.2 billion New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority deal set to price in August or September.

The New York State Thruway Authority board last week authorized its executive director to negotiate but not execute on his own a new contract with Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP, which has been bond counsel for the agency for all of its 60 years of existence.

CHICAGO — The Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois will receive $442 million in long-awaited state bonding proceeds for capital projects, representing the first installment of $2.7 billion of transit funding in the state’s capital budget, Gov. Pat Quinn announced Thursday.

OAKLAND, Calif. — It’s not dead yet.

WASHINGTON — Congress only has a very small window of time early next year to approve a multi-year transportation bill or it will risk losing the opportunity to do so for another two years, congressional aides said at a meeting here yesterday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Crews this week began geotechnical and survey work on the first phase of Florida’s $2.6 billion high-speed rail project from Tampa to Orlando, which is set to be built in the median of Interstate 4.

The New York State Thruway Authority approved a personal income-tax bond deal of up to $600 million at its monthly board meeting Wednesday.

The Louisiana State Bond Commission will meet today to consider a resolution setting the parameters of a $435 million negotiated bond sale for the state’s transportation program. The bonds are expected to price by the end of August.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is looking for underwriters to work on a potential refunding of $145 million of outstanding Western Turnpike debt.

DALLAS — Redevelopment of Denver’s Union Station gains momentum this week with the closing on a $146 million loan from the federal government.

CHICAGO — A Wisconsin Supreme Court decision overturning the state diversion of $200 million from a medical malpractice fund will force a new round of budget cuts, Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration said Tuesday.

The Senate may vote on a multi-year Federal Aviation Administration bill this week that could include an increase in the cap on passenger facilities charges, a key lawmaker and others said Tuesday at a meeting here sponsored by the American Association of Airport Executives.