Economy

DALLAS - Fitch Ratings has downgraded $120 million of taxable revenue bonds sold in 2001 for a car rental facility at Houston Intercontinental Airport. Citing declining coverage ratios, Fitch cut the rating on the debt one notch to A-minus from A.

WASHINGTON - The Governmental Accounting Standards Board on Friday urged market participants to submit written comments on exposure drafts on health care and other post-employment benefit plans and Chapter 9 bankruptcies by Aug. 28.

An arbitration panel last week awarded unionized transit workers at New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority an 11.3% raise over three years. The raises for Transit Workers Union Local 100 workers will cost an estimated $350 million, the MTA said.

Few people with Richard Ravitch’s resume would call themselves a student, but with the state facing a $2.1 billion current-year budget deficit, New York’s lieutenant governor has hit the state’s books.

SAN FRANCISCO — After collecting more than $104 million from the Bay Area Toll Authority in return for terminating a swap agreement, Ambac Financial Services LLC sued the agency this week seeking an additional $50 million.

CHICAGO — With a shakily balanced fiscal 2010 budget now in place, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn turned his attention yesterday after seven months in office to putting his stamp on a major bond-issuing state agency with the appointment of new board members to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.

WASHINGTON - The first industry groups to comment on two Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposals tied to its EMMA disclosure system are warning that they may be unfair or unduly burdensome in certain respects.

Florida officials are disputing the way the federal government is calculating how the state spends transportation funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

A plan to increase Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority fares by 20% is now off the table as officials said they will wait for an outside review of the agency's finances before asking mass transit users to pay more on buses and trains.

SAN FRANCISCO - About 100 highly rated higher education, health care, and other not-for-profit issuers are using self-liquidity to support short-term debt, according to a Moody's Investors Service report published this week.

Gov. Ted Strickland last week issued an executive order creating an automobile support council to help Ohio’s declining automobile industry.

The Oklahoma Transportation Commission has authorized an agreement with the Oklahoma Capitol Improvement Authority to issue $300 million to finance the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s eight-year construction work plan.

The Texas Department of Transportation has awarded a contract to build a park on top of a below-grade connector roadway in downtown Dallas. Project financing includes $20 million from the city’s $1.2 billion general obligation bond program approved by voters in 2006.

DALLAS - Officials at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport today will brief the Dallas City Council's finance committee on the airport's plans to refund up to $600 million of outstanding debt in the next two months.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority faces a $9.91 billion funding gap in its next five-year capital plan, according to a draft released yesterday.

Alliance, Ohio, disclosed yesterday that the Internal Revenue Service is conducting an audit of $55 million of hospital revenue bonds it issued in 2003.

DALLAS - Denver is preparing up to $250 million of bonds, mainly to pay for short-term improvements while sketching plans for a major redevelopment of its landmark terminal building over the next five years.

CHICAGO - Cleveland today will begin to price $160 million of fixed-rate airport revenue bonds and later this month follow with a $50 million variable-rate transaction.

WASHINGTON - The Congressional Budget Office has issued a report analyzing the revenue effects of 188 budget options, including replacing exempt interest earnings from muni bonds with tax credits beginning in 2011, which it says would generate $19.8 billion over the next 10 years.

CHICAGO - The Cleveland Clinic Health System will begin taking retail orders today on $800 million of fixed-rate revenue bonds that includes $500 million of new money and $300 million of refunding bonds.