Higher education bonds

The New Jersey Educational Facilities Authority approved the appointment Monday of James Stephen Poole, a former director of the state’s Office of Public Finance, to head the higher-educational bonding agency.

New bond-financed higher education facilities must include a dedicated maintenance fund before the projects will be approved, under a new policy adopted last week by the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

CHICAGO — Indiana’s Purdue University will price $171 million of new-money and refunding bonds Thursday, and follow the sale with a $117 million borrowing in the next few weeks that will mark its fourth trip to market this year.

SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California will sell $760 million of mostly taxable Build America Bonds next week to help finance upgrades to three medical centers.

KnowledgeFunding Ohio Inc., a nonprofit group that issues tax-exempt bonds and buys student loans, has launched a new website for bondholders.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The newly created Florida Education Investment Trust Fund has hired PFM Asset Management LLC as its investment adviser.

University of Oklahoma Board of Regents last week gave final approval for a $48 million revenue bond issue to finance a fourth building at the university’s Partners Place research campus.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York gave both preliminary and final approvals Wednesday to up to $1.4 billion of bonds for education, higher education, and health care projects at a board meeting in Albany.

CHICAGO — Midwestern voters next week go to the polls to decide the fate of $2.16 billion worth of borrowing requests, choose new governors, and decide spending and taxing measures.

CHICAGO — The triple-A rated University of Michigan Wednesday will sell $220 million of general revenue bonds to finance part of its 10-year, $5.5 billion capital plan.

DALLAS — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will eliminate a $106.8 million deficit in the $25.5 billion budget for fiscal 2011 mostly by cutting expenditures for higher education and health care.

The Ohio Building Authority issued $9.5 million of bonds on behalf of Clark State Community College, marking the second transaction under the new Ohio Community and Technical College Credit Enhancement Program.

Standard & Poor’s revised its outlook to positive from stable on Nebraska State Colleges’ student fees and facilities revenue and refunding debt issued by the Nebraska State Colleges Board of Trustees. The debt’s underlying rating is A.

CHICAGO — UC Health, which operates the primary safety-net hospital in Cincinnati, is coming to market Tuesday with $207.5 million of revenue bonds to finance capital projects.

SAN FRANCISCO — The University of Oregon hopes to get the green light for a novel plan to sell $800 million of bonds to help create an endowment that would pay for the school’s expenses and reduce its reliance on state funding, according to its president.

Louisiana Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, said Monday he would support a temporary reinstatement of state income tax hikes that were repealed in 2008 if it would avoid severe budget cuts for higher education.

DALLAS — The University of Colorado Board of Regents enjoyed a good market response Tuesday to a $95 million issue that included taxable and tax-exempt debt, said associate treasurer David Solin.

New Mexico voters will decide on more than $175 million of proposed state bonds at the November election. The state general obligation bond questions are on the ballot every two years.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority board this week advanced deals to help fund projects for the University of Chicago Medical Center and DePaul University and announced the successful pooling of federal recovery zone facility bond allocations from at least 15 cities and counties for Navistar International Corp.

The University of Nebraska board of regents will vote Friday on a $56 million plan to expand its Memorial Stadium to make it more competitive with other Big 10 stadiums. The Cornhuskers join the Big Ten conference next year.