Higher education bonds

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of municipal issuers of auction-rate securities are still grappling with failed auctions that have resulted in sky-high interest rates, eight months after broker-dealers stopped supporting auctions and the ARS market collapsed.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York will consider revising its guidelines so that it can sell bonds for a wider range of investment-grade borrowers in a difficult market, executive director Paul Williams Jr. said yesterday.

DALLAS - With tax revenue falling dramatically, the Arizona State Transportation Board will examine its bonding capacity today with a view toward scaling back projects already on the drawing board.

DALLAS - With its economy tumbling, Arizona will shelve a $1 billion construction program for three state universities due to falling lottery revenues that were to provide debt service on bonds for the projects.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York received nine responses last week to a request for information about using taxable and tax-exempt bond financing for settlements with the state's special disability fund, also known as the Second Injury Fund.

DALLAS - The negotiated sale of $180.1 million of lease revenue bonds by the Louisiana Local Government Environmental Facilities and Community Development Authority for the benefit of the state's community college and technical school system will be delayed due to market turmoil.

WASHINGTON - The Brazos Higher Education Service Corp., one of the largest nonprofit student loan lenders in the country, may be the first to ask its institutional investors to voluntarily tender, at less than par, roughly $6 billion of outstanding taxable student-loan related auction-rate securities so that it can restructure them as term floating-rate notes.

CHICAGO - ThedaCare Inc. and Marquette University - two Wisconsin-based tax-exempt borrowers that sought first-time ratings - joined the list of issuers with deals on hold this week due to the rise in long-term interest rates, although Marquette did move forward with its floating-rate tranches due to its cash needs.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York last week approved new bond financings, refundings, and conversions totaling $1.68 billion, including up to $1.1 billion of personal income tax bonds.

University of Massachusetts officials last week unanimously approved a $2.56 billion, five-year capital plan that includes $1.45 billion of borrowing to support infrastructure improvements throughout the system's five campuses.

CHICAGO - Ohio State University plans to enter the market Monday with the first of two bond issues totaling roughly $350 million that will kick off a $1.5 billion, six-year capital plan.

DALLAS - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal went to Washington, D.C., to meet with the state's congressional delegation on Tuesday to advance the case for millions of federal dollars in reimbursement for its expenses and losses related to Hurricane Gustav.

Renovations to Dallas’ Cotton Bowl stadium, financed in part with $30 million of proceeds from city bonds approved by voters in November 2006, brings the capacity of the facility in Fair Park to 92,200. The $57 million project, aided by $30 million from the State Fair of Texas, makes the venerable stadium the ninth-largest athletic facility in the country.

Moody’s Investors Service assigned a first time rating of A2 to Marquette University’s debt ahead of its $110 million debt issue next month.

DALLAS - The University of Colorado Board of Regents will finance significant expansion of its Front Range campuses with proceeds from a $142.6 million revenue bond issue this week.

A $1.3 billion North Carolina education financing will command the spotlight in the primary market this week as the municipal market is expected to see an estimated $6 billion in competitive and negotiated new-issue volume, compared with last week's revised $4.2 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

The University of Massachusetts last week moved forward with a $2.56 billion, five-year plan that will help finance capital projects at five different campuses and include $1.45 billion of borrowing.

Princeton University on Wednesday will take bids for $250 million of natural triple-A rated debt to help pay for new academic buildings and maintenance projects. The New Jersey Educational Facilities Authority will issue the debt on behalf of the university.

WASHINGTON - Georgetown University, one of the first issuers to be hit by a failed auction as the auction-rate securities market was beginning to collapse earlier this year, is joining the throngs of issuers exiting the devastated market when it begins to convert about $550 million of its ARS in the coming weeks.

CHICAGO - On the heels of the sale of a financially troubled borrower to a for-profit buyer, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is dipping into its reserves and taking out a short-term bank loan in order to redeem $5.7 million in tax-exempt bonds issued on behalf of the borrower.