Economy

CHICAGO — The Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission enters the market as soon as tomorrow with its first sale this year, a $156 million refunding that should generate about $7 million in savings to help the agency as it manages through the recession and its impact on air travel and the airlines.

WASHINGTON — The development of a 17,000-mile national high-speed rail network would cost $600 billion, or $30 billion per year through 2030, Andy Kunz, president and chief executive officer of the U. S. High Speed Rail Association, said here at a conference yesterday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Top Florida officials are considering calling a special session of the Legislature in early December to solve problems that could prevent the state from getting federal stimulus funds for a variety of rail projects.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has determined that bonds issued by a university medical school to finance or refinance items used by a nonprofit hospital are considered obligations of a state governmental unit and therefore tax-exempt, the IRS said in a private-letter ruling released this week.

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners, the governing body for Los Angeles World Airports, this week approved the sale of up to $1.625 billion of revenue bonds for Los Angeles International Airport.

Erickson Retirement Communities, developer of 19 continuing-care retirement communities throughout the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas.

Transportation officials and an advocacy group in Virginia are battling over whether a Virginia or District of Columbia judge should decide whether drivers on the Dulles Toll Road are being illegally charged tolls used to back bonds issued for the Dulles Metrorail project.

Maple Grove, Minn., has disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service has initiated an audit of $53.8 million of bonds it issued in 2005 to finance renovations and construction to two health care facilities.

Massachusetts Wednesday announced that it has resolved a termination event on the fifth and final Massachusetts Turnpike Authority swap with UBS Securities LLC as counterparty.

The Charleston County Airport District’s outstanding revenue bonds were upgraded last week to A1 from A2 by Moody’s Investors Service despite a negative outlook on the airport sector, which the agency expects to maintain through early 2010. The airport has $13.3 million of rated debt outstanding.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Oakland-based Bay Area Toll Authority plans to sell $1.3 billion in its first taxable Build America Bond deal next week.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is seeking investment banking services, as the agency could refinance fixed-rate bonds associated with $800 million of floating-to-fixed-rate swaps.

CHICAGO — The Indiana Finance Authority today is expected to price $225 million of new-money revenue bonds on behalf of Sisters of St. Francis Health Services Inc.

DALLAS — Houston-based St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System is preparing a $385 million revenue bond refunding deal through the Harris County Cultural Education Facilities Finance Corp.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation’s inspector general is warning that at least 10 airport improvement program grants distributed by the Federal Aviation Administration under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act “may have questionable economic merit or could involve recipients that have had grant management problems.”

CHICAGO — More than $1 billion of borrowing by health care facilities in Illinois is expected in the coming months in deals approved by the Illinois Finance Authority board amid improved market access for the sector.

Moody’s Investors Service last week revised the outlook on Loyola University of Chicago’s A3 credit to stable from negative because of strong operating performance and cash flow as well as operating improvement initiatives being undertaken by the university’s health system.

DALLAS — Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives expects to sell up to $1.2 billion of revenue bonds with a variety of structures in a multi-state deal tomorrow and Thursday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The $1 billion Port of Miami Tunnel project Thursday reached financial closing — a conclusion that took nearly four years due to economic challenges, political problems, and diminished access to credit for large transportation-related public-private partnerships.

LAS VEGAS — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is making a push to expand its presence in the nation’s health care sector by ramping up its long-standing FHA mortgage insurance program for hospitals.