Economy

Moody’s Investors Service last week placed Marietta Area Health Care’s Ba1 rating on negative watch, affecting $38.5 million of outstanding debt. Marietta has an additional $33 million of letter-of-credit-backed debt not rated by Moody’s. Analysts expect to issue a full review of the credit within the next 30 days.

The Michigan Supreme Court Friday handed state transportation officials a victory when it upheld a ruling requiring Manuel Moroun, the owner of the Ambassador Bridge, to rebuild the ramps and approaches leading to the span. The ruling could pave the way for forcing Maroun to conform to designs by the Michigan Department of Transportation.

WASHINGTON — A critique of two proposed hospital projects in Montgomery County, Md., echoes warnings that the enactment of health care reform will make it more challenging for nonprofit health providers to finance projects through the municipal bond market.

DALLAS — Arkansas will refund three series of highway bonds with this week’s negotiated sale of $256.97 million of five-year general obligation bonds that will lower debt-service costs in fiscal 2011 by an anticipated $11 million.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida last week received $66.6 million out of $80 million in federal grants distributed by the U.S. Department of Transportation for high-speed rail development.

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson traveled across the state last week for ceremonial signings of a long-term, $8.2 billion transportation program. The effort will be financed with proceeds from an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue bonds, a portion of a 1% sales tax increase, and higher fees for heavy trucks.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Wednesday celebrated the completion of a $737 million project to renovate the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.

WASHINGTON — Virginia is reviewing its public-private partnership program to ensure the state can most efficiently leverage private funds as its transportation revenues have dwindled amid the economic recession.

WASHINGTON — The House was poised late Thursday to consider an amendment to the tax-extenders package that would slightly alter the distribution of nearly $1 billion to states for transportation projects.

CHICAGO — Nonprofit health care providers grappling with what to do about interest rate swaps that for years saved them money but now have become costly burdens face a “stark choice” that can depend on their fiscal position and appetite for risk.

CHICAGO — The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority plans in early to mid-June to sell $400 million of refunding bonds as it moves to shift a chunk of synthetic floating-to-fixed-rate debt to a traditional fixed-rate structure to reduce bank and liquidity risks.

LOS ANGELES — The first public-private partnership project under a program championed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently cleared a major procedural hurdle, though questions remain over whether the Presidio Parkway project is the right way to use P3s.

DALLAS — The University of Colorado Hospital will use bond financing for a $400 million expansion at the new Anschutz Medical Campus at the site of the former Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora, officials said yesterday.

An economic analysis of the new state teaching hospital in New Orleans has recommended that the bond issue for the facility be increased by $150 million.

An analysis of the Georgia Department of Transportation’s first public-private partnership outlines significant economic development benefits for the Atlanta metropolitan area and the state as a whole.

CHICAGO — The federal health care overhaul could cost Indiana up to $2.9 billion through 2020, a new report estimates.

The Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority yesterday signed off on Mercy Alliance’s $48 million bond sale scheduled for this week.

A $425 million plan to build a new convention center and medical merchandise mart in downtown Cleveland advanced last week as the Cuyahoga County Commission approved the purchase of the last piece of land needed for the complex.

A Michigan House subcommittee last week approved three bills that would authorize a bond-issuing regional authority to oversee a 400-mile mass transit system running throughout the Detroit area.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority could sell revenue anticipation notes to fill a hole caused by New York’s withholding of subsidies, officials said at a finance committee meeting yesterday. This month the state has withheld $275 million of certain aid payments to the MTA, officials said.