Economy

DALLAS - A year after issuing a record $5.3 billion of debt, the North Texas Tollway Authority is preparing a $343 million bond package that will tie up loose ends from its flurry of financing in 2008.

The head of the Arkansas Blue Ribbon Committee on Highway Finance said last week that options for providing at least $200 million of new money each year to the Highway and Transportation Department are becoming clearer.

Air travel may be down, but bonds sold to build a cargo facility at a New York City airport managed to pull up in time, according to Standard & Poor's.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Florida Department of Transportation has set Thursday as the ultimate deadline for financial close on the state's most unique public-private partnership - the $1 billion Port of Miami Tunnel Project. But late last week several FDOT letters to Miami officials placed in doubt, once again, whether the nation's first P3 based on availability payments would come to fruition.

Senate staff and state officials worried during a conference here last week that legislation pending before the House Transportation Committee would go too far by creating a federal office with the power to reject public-private partnership agreements for highways that received federal aid.

Puerto Rico’s Department of Economic Development and Commerce is seeking $70 million of federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery funds to help finance capital projects related to the Port of the America’s development in Ponce.

SAN FRANCISCO — The wheels are grinding slowly toward implementation of a landmark California bill authorizing public-private partnerships for transportation projects, with concerns arising from both would-be public and private participants as to how the P3 process will be implemented.

WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell said yesterday that he supports delaying a reauthorization of the current six-year transportation law until after the 2010 congressional elections.

CHICAGO — Ohio State University’s board of trustees this week approved a $1 billion expansion plan of the school’s medical center campus that will rely on $925 million of new-money bonds.

WASHINGTON — Pension funds may be attracted to Build America Bonds but should be careful to diversify instead of only investing in their own state’s or city’s BABs, a New York City-based private-equity director said at a conference here Thursday.

Traffic at the airport carrying the code FAT has thinned, leading Fitch Ratings Monday to move its outlook on Fresno airport revenue bonds from stable to negative. The BBB-plus rating on about $60 million of outstanding bonds was affirmed.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority on Wednesday approved an application for more than $4.5 billion in federal stimulus money to fund engineering, design and construction on its planned high-speed passenger train system.

WASHINGTON - House lawmakers yesterday easily approved a bill that would extend funding for highways and other surface transportation by three months, after some controversy, as well as a measure to extend funding for airports for the same period of time.

CHICAGO — Illinois erred in stripping Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana of its property tax exemption over charity-care levels and it should be restored because the hospital treats all patients regardless of their ability to pay, a Provena attorney told the state Supreme Court in oral arguments Wednesday.

Lower-rated borrowers that couldn't meet the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York's stringent credit requirements are likely to find the door open a little wider in the near future if staff recommendations presented yesterday are implemented.

DALLAS - The New Orleans Aviation Board can begin the process of seeking bids for a long-term lease on Louis Armstrong International Airport following initial federal approval of the proposal to turn the city-owned facility into the first privately operated major passenger airport in the United States.

CHICAGO - As Michigan legislators continue to wrangle over a 2010 budget, a group of environmental and transportation activists this week urged officials and Gov. Jennifer Granholm to drop plans to build a new $1.8 billion border crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

SAN FRANCISCO - San Jose, Calif.'s Norman Y. Mineta International Airport added a tax-exempt private-activity series to its commercial paper program last week as it began to take advantage of the alternative minimum tax holiday.

CHICAGO - Public finance banker Carole Brown will step down as chairwoman of the Chicago Transit Authority board after Chicago Mayor Richard Daley names a replacement so she can focus on her work at Siebert, Brandford Shank & Co.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Wills Memorial Hospital in Washington, Ga., last month sold nearly $13 million of taxable Build America Bonds with a draw-down structure and enhancements that officials believe may help other rural health-care providers access the capital markets in these difficult times.