Industries

CHICAGO - The Illinois Finance Authority board yesterday advanced borrowing plans totaling $500 million for health care facilities in the state, including up to $350 million for Northwest Community Hospital to finance a new patient tower and other projects and to refund existing debt.

Now that New Jersey's fiscal 2009 budget is signed, sealed, and delivered, attention in the Garden State turns once again to financing transportation infrastructure as two senators this week proposed allowing a private company to manage certain lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Standard & Poor’s last week revised the outlook to stable from negative on Morris Hospital and Healthcare Centers’ BBB-plus rating on $11 million of debt.

DALLAS - Integris Health will reduce its level of variable-rate demand debt with next week's negotiated sale of $222.7 million of fixed-rate hospital system revenue and refunding bonds by Oklahoma Development Finance Authority.

Pennsylvania will issue roughly $1.2 billion of general obligation and state appropriation debt in fiscal 2009 after Gov. Edward Rendell signed off on nearly $3 billion of borrowing to be issued over the next three to five years.

CHICAGO - Fitch Ratings last week placed West Bend, Wis.-based SynergyHealthInc.'s BBB-minus credit on rating watch for an upgrade in recognition of its newly minted affiliation with the stronger-rated Froedtert & Community HealthInc. system, based in Wauwatosa.

DALLAS - After winning a positive response from the market with a $125 million deal last month, the North Texas Tollway Authority is ready to continue its record year in debt issuance by pricing $1 billion of second-tier revenue bonds this week.

The New York Department of Health last week announced that it has amended the operating certificates of 18 health care facilities for failing to comply with the mandates of the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century.

DALLAS - A revised business plan for a proposed new medical center in New Orleans supports construction of the $1.2 billion facility, but indicates that the Louisiana Legislature will have to provide financial support to the bond-financed project.

CHICAGO - Joliet, Ill.-based Silver Cross Hospital and Medical Centerwon state regulatory approval this week to build a nearly $400 million replacement hospital a few miles from its current location while consideration of Edward Hospital's proposed new facility was again postponed by the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board.

CHICAGO - The Illinois International Port District should be dissolved and its operations handed over to Chicago because it has failed to promote maritime commerce and shipping activities and instead is focused on operating a golf course, the Civic Federation of Chicago urged in a report this week.

High gas prices are keeping motorists off Oklahoma’s highways, causing a dip in gasoline tax revenues at a time when construction costs are increasing rapidly.

Congress last week passed stopgap legislation that would extend through Sept. 30 funding for the Federal Aviation Administration that includes grants to airports for improvement projects. The bill was approved after lawmakers removed provisions that would have added $8 billion to the Highway Trust Fund.

DALLAS - The Oklahoma Department of Transportation will complete the first phase of a $500 million debt program with a $100 million negotiated sale in early fall.

CHICAGO - Merrill Lynch & Co. has scooped up nearly 30 public finance bankers from the ranks of the now-shuttered municipal group at UBS Securities LLC - taking advantage of a "once-in-a-decade opportunity" as its Wall Street neighbors shed staff to cope with subprime market-related losses, the firm's municipal chairman said.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Florida Department of Transportation is starting a new search for a concessionaire to become the first to lease an existing toll road in the state.

WASHINGTON - Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine's transportation plan died in the legislature yesterday after the House Rule Committee refused to let it come before the full House.

SAN FRANCISCO - Facing rising interest costs triggered by downgrades to Ambac Assurance Corp., the Orange County Transportation Authority is moving forward with plans to refinance toll revenue bonds it issued in 2003 to acquire toll lanes on the State Route 91 freeway from private owners.

DALLAS - RBC Capital Markets continued its efforts to increase the size and scope of its municipal finance health care group yesterday by bringing on board seven former Bear, Stearns & Co. bankers in that sector.

DALLAS - With the airline industry in turmoil, Denver continued to restructure its variable-rate debt with $85 million of revenue bonds for Denver International Airport yesterday.