Economy

DALLAS — The Louisiana State Bond Commission gave its go-ahead on Thursday to the third segment in a series of variable-rate fuel tax bonds that will provide a total of $485 million in proceeds this year to a constitutionally mandated road and bridge program.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority yesterday approved Jeffrey Mullan as executive director while it waits to see if the state will avert scheduled July 1 toll hikes with a $100 million bailout.

Portsmouth expects to sell $12 million of general obligation refunding bonds next Wednesday.

The New York State Thruway Authority approved two state-backed tax-exempt bond deals totaling $716 million at its board meeting yesterday.

Long Island Rail Road president Helena Williams will take over as interim executive director and chief executive officer New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, pending board approval, the MTA announced Thursday.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The recession and collapse of the credit markets have forced the Mississippi Department of Transportation to push back the procurement schedule for its first public-private partnership - a new 12-mile toll road.

CHICAGO - Chicago-based Resurrection Health Care's "sizeable" losses, which have eroded the Catholic system's liquidity and debt service coverage ratios, prompted Standard & Poor's yesterday to revise its outlook on the underlying BBB-plus credit to negative from stable.

The Senate Finance Committee is considering mandating nonprofit hospitals to provide a minimum level of charitable patient care and meet other requirements to retain their tax-exempt status and issue 501(c)(3) bonds.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Florida Department of Transportation said yesterday that the agency did not receive bids from any of the six respondents that had shown interest in leasing an existing 78-mile-long toll road known as Alligator Alley.

DALLAS - Amid severe financial pressure on state coffers, the Arizona Transportation Board is preparing to price $440 million of excise-tax-backed revenue bonds for projects, primarily in the Phoenix area.

CHICAGO - The triple-A rated University of Michigan enters the market tomorrow with $225 million of debt - the first piece in about $315 million of borrowing planned through early June that includes $50 million of Build America Bonds to finance a new women's and children's hospital and stadium renovations.

CHICAGO - Joliet, Ill.-based Silver Cross Hospital and Medical Centers is looking at entering the market as soon as this week with its long-planned sale of $250 million of fixed-rate bonds to help finance construction of a replacement hospital - an undertaking that officials believe was worth multiple-notch downgrades over the long term.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s finance committee voted to approve the issuance of $340 million of Metro Matters bonds.

CHICAGO — Chicago would use the $126 million in earnest money, which it received from a private consortium after it failed to raise the financing needed to complete the $2.52 billion lease of Midway Airport, to help balance the budget and repay debt for neighborhood infrastructure, under a plan proposed by Mayor Richard Daley this week.

WASHINGTON — Aviation groups are pushing for airport bonds to be permanently exempted from the alternative minimum tax, arguing that the it impairs airports’ ability to issue bonds to finance construction.

WASHINGTON — Key lawmakers in the Senate yesterday introduced transportation legislation that would move the country away from driving as a primary mode of moving both people and goods, improve the quality of highway and bridge infrastructure, and provide the transportation secretary with significant new oversight and planning duties.

BRADENTON, Fla. - A Kentucky lawmaker said he will raise questions today about whether a lease transaction to finance the purchase of a hospital exposed a flagship state university to risks posed by an underlying swap and letter of credit.

An eleventh-hour plan the Bush administration had crafted to auction flight slots at New York City-area airports to the highest bidder has been halted, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced yesterday.

The Virginia Port Authority expects to sell $65 million of bond anticipation notes on Tuesday as it grapples with slower shipping business amid the recession. The Bans are rated MIG-1 by Moody’s Investors Service and SP-1-plus by Standard & Poor’s.

WASHINGTON - The House Transportation Committee chairman is likely to soon introduce a multi-year funding bill that will propose major programmatic changes in the Transportation Department and create a new congestion-relief program with several bond components for 68 metropolitan areas, according to a handwritten outline recently presented to some key stakeholders.