Economy

DALLAS - The North Texas Tollway Authority is considering issuing as much as $500 million of taxable Build America Bonds in June, though discussions are very preliminary, officials say.

CHICAGO - Moody's Investors Service yesterday said it would develop a new set of liquidity measures to take into account when examining the credit profiles of universities, hospitals, and other nonprofit groups.

Standard & Poor’s last week revised its outlook to negative from stable on St. Louis-based SSM Health Care’s AA-minus rating on $1 billion of debt due to ongoing economic strains on its balance sheet.

DALLAS - Arkansas Children's Hospital will finance more than half the cost of a $121 million expansion to its Little Rock facility with an upcoming negotiated sale of $100 million of revenue bonds by Pulaski County.

CHICAGO - Chicago's $2.52 billion groundbreaking agreement to lease Midway Airport to a private consortium under a federal pilot program was canceled yesterday over the group's inability to raise financing for the 99-year transaction amid the ongoing international credit crunch.

The New York State Senate Democratic majority offered a new rescue package for the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority late Monday. The proposal would raise $1.76 billion annually, which includes debt service on $1.2 billion of bonds that would finance road, bridge and rail projects in upstate New York and Long Island, Austin Shafran, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, said. The proposal would eliminate service cuts and reduce fare and toll yield hikes to 8% from the 23% the MTA board approved last month, Shafran said.

John McGee, chief financial officer of the Arizona Department of Transportation, said last week that public-private partnerships could help solve at least part of the state’s transportation funding problem.

Standard & Poor’s last week raised $4.8 billion of outstanding New Jersey Turnpike Authority revenue bonds to A-plus from A. The outlook is stable.

CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Friday named prominent physician and activist Quentin Young to serve as chairman of the once scandal-tainted Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board that regulates billions of dollars in health care-related construction projects.

Virtua Health in southwestern New Jersey will issue $565 million of fixed- and variable-rate bonds in the next few weeks to finance a new 368-bed hospital set to open spring 2011.

The Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority last week created an eight-member advisory committee to evaluate a possible merger with its sister authority, the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency.

Pennsylvania airports received a boost last week as four facilities gained $10.5 million from the federal stimulus package, including $5 million for Philadelphia International Airport for runway rehabilitation.

Holders of Grace Manor health care facility bonds will be looking to the State of New York Mortgage Agency to make them whole following the nursing home's bankruptcy filing earlier this month.

BRADENTON, Fla. - After a three-day political powwow at the state capital last week, Florida Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos agreed to resume negotiations with the concessionaire originally chosen to finance and build the $1.2 billion Port of Miami Tunnel Project.

DALLAS — The Harris County Toll Road Authority is coming to market this week with the first of two sales expected this year to fund completion of the Sam Houston Tollway and extension of the Hardy Toll Road to downtown Houston.

A program to fund congestion-related transportation projects that is likely to be included in a forthcoming federal transportation bill may allow metropolitan areas to issue tax-exempt bonds and taxable tax-credit bonds.

DALLAS — Louisiana will avoid $75 million of a potential $120 million in swap termination fees on a delayed issue of $485 million of fuels-tax revenue bonds with a reconfigured structure that will finance an ongoing highway improvement program for the next six to 12 months.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration yesterday unveiled its strategy for the creation of a national high-speed rail network, inviting states and localities to compete in the coming months for federal funding. The grants may favor states that can provide matching funds, from bonds or other sources, market participants said.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority yesterday nearly tripled the size of its revenue bond deal set for Monday to $1.75 billion from $650 million, with the transaction to potentially include $1.25 billion of taxable Build America Bonds.

West Virginia is looking at increasing turnpike toll rates this summer. It would be the first toll increase since 1981.