Economy

Senate Democrats plan to unveil a “jobs agenda” as early as this morning that would extend surface transportation programs for a year, expand the Build America Bonds program, and augment the popular TIGER discretionary transportation grant program.

SAN FRANCISCO — Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority’s senior and subordinate debt yesterday, citing declines in trade volumes at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.

A Newark, N.J., bankruptcy court Tuesday approved St. Mary’s Hospital’s reorganization plan, a move that will now require New Jersey to pay $1.5 million per year through 2027 to help meet debt service payments on state contract bonds sold on behalf of the health care provider.

CHICAGO — The Indianapolis Local Public Improvement Bond Bank will enter the market today with about $200 million of bonds, in the first of two borrowings that will finance construction of a new, $754 million safety-net hospital for ­Marion County.

AUSTIN — The $1.3 billion effort to replace Dallas County’s public hospital was able to get off the ground with the use of Build America Bonds, which reduced the debt service burden on county taxpayers.

Municipal infrastructure market participants believe that insufficient funding and the politicization of infrastructure are worse impediments to investments than corruption, earmark abuses, public policy instability, or poor creditworthiness of public authorities, according to a recent survey by KPMG LLP.

The state would privatize the Ohio Lottery and the Ohio Turnpike and use the money to fund a college scholarship program under a bill introduced last week by Sen. Kevin Coughlin.

A plan to build a new hospital advanced last week when the Merrick County Board of Supervisors approved a plan by Litzenberg Memorial County Hospital to build a new $25 million facility and a $9 million long-term care facility.

The Michigan Department of Transportation last week put out a request for proposals seeking construction bids from companies interested in work on a new, $1.8 billion, bond-financed bridge across the Detroit River. The deadline for responses is March 17.

WASHINGTON — President Obama in his fiscal 2011 budget yesterday proposed a $4 billion infrastructure bank to fund or finance worthwhile transportation projects.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York could sell bonds to refinance the troubled St. Vincent’s Hospital’s debt, according to a spokesman for Congressman Jerrold Nadler, D-Manhattan.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. has pulled out of a partnership with the Related Cos. to develop the 26-acre East and West Side Rail Yards in Manhattan — also known as the Hudson Yards — the parties confirmed yesterday.

CHICAGO — The Michigan Department of Transportation last week significantly cut its five-year construction plan, warning the state faces the loss of $2.4 billion in federal aid through 2014 because it lacks matching dollars.

DALLAS — With a statewide moratorium on new private toll projects still in place after more than two years, the Texas Transportation Commission is planning a bypass around that financial barrier to leverage existing funds.

The Arkansas Blue Ribbon Committee on Highway Finance has urged tax increases and a diversion of general fund revenue to finance highway construction and maintenance needs estimated at $19.1 billion over the next 10 years. Current sources would provide only $4.1 billion over the period.

Without tax increases to finance transportation infrastructure, tolling on large portions of the nation’s interstate highway system will be inevitable, Citi managing director Ronald Marino said on Friday.

SAN FRANCISCO — After appearing to close a long debate in December with the decision to award construction contracts for a rail link to the Oakland International Airport, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District now faces the threat of losing $70 million in federal stimulus funding on civil rights grounds.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco International Airport plans to refund $215.9 million of fixed-rate debt with variable-rate demand obligations next week, as it seeks to pair debt with forward swaps it agreed to enter before the financial crisis.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue Thursday said the state could not refinance $424.4 million of transportation debt because the board that oversees road projects has voted to ­maintain accounting practices that violate state law.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last week updated financial information presented in bond documents, including an estimated $1.52 billion current-year state budget deficit and the limited status of New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority funds.