Economy

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.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will now look for a new general manager after Daniel Grabauskas Friday stepped down from the post under pressure from the Gov. Deval Patrick administration.

Moody’s Investors Service this week downgraded the Sierra Kings Hospital District’s general obligation bonds to Baa3 from Baa1 ahead of a planned $4 million sale of GO bonds.

Bonds sold in 1996 to help finance an assisted-living facility in Cherry Hill, N.J., are in default after U.S. Bank NA, the trustee for the debt, dipped into reserve funds to meet July 1 interest and principal payments owed to investors.

Moody’s Investors Service Tuesday downgraded the New Orleans Port Board of Commissioners revenue bonds to Baa1 from A2.

DALLAS - The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority is accelerating plans for the $623 million U.S. 290 tollway near Austin to take advantage of federal stimulus funds, officials said.

DALLAS - The University of Arkansas in Little Rock will ask the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees next month for a $31.6 million bond issue to build a new nanotechnology center and other facilities on the Little Rock campus.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, accompanied by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Tuesday made one of several stops in the Bluegrass State to ceremonially signing new legislation clearing the way for the two states to finance the $4.1 billion Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project.

CHICAGO - Indiana's Parkview Health System will enter the market over the next few weeks with $480 million of fixed- and variable-rate debt that will be used to refinance outstanding auction-rate debt and bank-held variable-rate bonds and to raise new money.

The West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency voted last Friday to eliminate subsidized retirement health care for new hires in an effort to cut the state’s other post-employment benefits liability.