Economy

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.

WASHINGTON - The top Republican on the Senate's tax-writing committee yesterday suggested that nonprofit hospitals, which are currently tax-exempt and have the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds, should instead become taxable and receive tax deductions or credits for charitable activities.

WASHINGTON - Medicare and Social Security trust funds will run out of money in 2017 and 2037, respectively - two to four years earlier than previously projected - because of the recession, trustees concluded in annual reports sent to Congress.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to market bonds on a new credit using a new dedicated revenue stream that the state established last week, officials said at a special board meeting convened yesterday to reduce fare and toll increases.

President Obama's budget proposes to hike the marginal tax rates of the wealthy to 36% and 39.6% beginning in fiscal 2011, and to increase by 5% the capital gains and dividends tax rate for the wealthy - tax changes that market participants say could lead to higher demand for tax-exempt bonds.

The fiscal storm that buffeted New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority for months has abated somewhat after lawmakers finally came up with new revenue streams for the stressed agency, but the forecast is still cloudy.

WASHINGTON — The North Carolina Turnpike Authority’s board moved forward with a $650 million toll road bond deal — its first and the largest of any issuer in the state — after obtaining bond insurance from Assured Guaranty Corp.

Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have introduced two bills that pro-tolling market participants worry would put a halt to public-private partnerships for highways.

The North Carolina Turnpike Authority has received a conditional letter of commitment from Assured Guaranty Corp. that could allow it to issue its first bonds in June, says executive director, David Joyner.

Miami-Dade County commissioners meeting Tuesday refused to advance a proposal that could have led to the repeal of a half-cent transit tax that has leveraged $461 million of debt. But efforts to repeal the tax may not be over yet.