Economy

The Georgia General Assembly Friday ended its 2009 regular session without agreement on new funding for transportation projects as well as measures that would have helped the state's largest transit agency with its budget problems.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority the week of April 20 will sell $650 million of long-term revenue debt, including $250 million of taxable Build America Bonds, the first new-money sale for the authority since 2005 and the largest sale to date of the new class of securities.

DALLAS - With Texas facing the first drop in fuel-tax revenues in nearly two decades, state Sen. John Carona yesterday called for passage of his bill that would allow counties in metro areas to seek local tax increases.

WASHINGTON - In an effort to boost disclosures for non-pension, health care, and other post-employment benefits, the National Federation of Municipal Analysts is urging issuers to release as much supplemental information in annual financial statements and bond offering documents as necessary "to effectively explain and communicate" their specific OPEB situation and funding approach.

Starved for new capital funding, the Regional Transportation Authority last week praised the Illinois General Assembly's passage and Gov. Pat Quinn's signing of a $9 billion capital program that provides $900 million for public transit.

Standard & Poor's took negative credit actions on a pair of North Dakota hospitals last week.

DALLAS - As airlines struggled with soaring fuel prices last year, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport capitalized on the energy boom, earning $28 million in royalties on gas production on its 18,092-acre property.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to refinance $167 million of auction-rate securities Wednesday, as it works to clear its variable-rate debt portfolio of more than a half-billion dollars of poorly performing assets.

Investors who own billions of dollars of debt issued by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority are waiting to see how they would fare if the agencies are consolidated or merged in order to reduce costs.

New York lawmakers could be called to a special session next week to consider legislation to bail out the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Gov. David Paterson said last week.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The $1.2 billion Port of Miami Tunnel project will undergo another procurement process, Florida’s Department of Transportation chief said late Wednesday.

Death and disease know no recession. Hospitals do.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $149.7 million of revenue bonds issued in 2005 by the Maryland Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority.

WASHINGTON - A Chicago-area real estate company has proposed an unsolicited 60-year concession to operate the Port of Virginia that would give the state an up-front payment of $500 million and $8.9 billion over the life of the deal.

DALLAS - Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday approved a $13 billion state budget for fiscal 2010 that relies on spending cuts, fund adjustments, and $585 million in federal stimulus funds to eliminate an expected $680 million revenue shortfall next year.

State officials will still move ahead with plans to potentially merge the Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority with the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency despite the fact that state Sen. Marian Walsh Tuesday announced that she would relinquish her new role at MassHEFA.

WASHINGTON - Continuing care retirement communities face more rating downgrades than upgrades in 2009 because of limited access to capital, slower unit re-occupancy caused by falling real estate values, and significantly reduced liquidity due to losses on investments, Fitch Ratings said yesterday.

CHICAGO - Chicago will give the private consortium that wants to lease the city's Midway Airport for 99 years for an up-front payment of $2.5 billion up to an additional six months to put its financing scheme together.

After a seven-year hiatus from bonding, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey today plans to sell $253 million of revenue refunding bonds with a special "lockbox" structure to secure debt service payments.

CHICAGO - Ohio lawmakers were poised to vote late yesterday on a $9.6 billion, two-year state transportation budget that would include a new bond program as well as expanded authority for the state to enter into public-private partnerships to raise revenue.