Industries

DALLAS - The Harris County, Tex., Metropolitan Transit Authority will invest $1.5 billion to build 20 miles of light rail under a plan approved by the board of directors Wednesday.

DALLAS - Louisiana will accept up to $2.5 billion of federal stimulus funds over the next two years, but Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration is reviewing another $1.5 billion allocated to the state before deciding whether to use the available funds.

The Georgia State Transportation Board last week voted to fire Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans.

The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority last Thursday increased tolls in central Florida for the first time in nearly nine years. The base toll will increase 25 cents beginning April 5 with future increases every five years based on the consumer price index.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is slated to vote today on two bills that would authorize federal funding for water infrastructure and airports - including bond-related funds - and to outline how the fiscal 2010 budget summary released by the White House last week would affect infrastructure.

CHICAGO - Months after narrowly avoiding its first default, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is faced with another delinquent bond-fund borrower that has warned it would likely have a tough time making its full monthly debt payments this year due to the weak economy.

DALLAS - Utah will turn to the bond market to ease its budget crunch, issuing up to $3.3 billion of debt this year for expansion of Interstate 15 under an agreement between Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and legislative leaders.

CHICAGO - Des Moines-based Iowa Health System enters the market today with nearly $250 million of variable-rate debt in five series with three letter of credit providers to raise $43 million for new projects and to refund $201 million of outstanding floating-rate debt insured by Ambac Assurance Corp.

WASHINGTON - More than a year after the auction-rate securities market collapsed, some $78 billion of illiquid municipal ARS remain outstanding, but a growing number of bond attorneys are pushing to use a new type of taxable bond program recently authorized by Congress to refund some of those securities.

Chicago received clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration last week to use $182 million in passenger facility charges collected on airline tickets to finance design work on new and expanded runways and a western terminal that are part of the later phases of the $7.5 billion expansion at O’Hare International Airport.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn last week signed a measure that allows the state to borrow $500 million from two state funds to kick-start its hospital assessment tax program, which was enacted to leverage additional federal Medicaid dollars and expedite payments to hospitals.

CHICAGO - Denver-based investment banking firm George K. Baum & Co. has hired prominent Midwest health care banker Tom Laird to open a Minneapolis office and launch a new national health care business.

Fitch Ratings last week stripped $40.1 million of Lake of the Ozarks Community Bridge Corp. bonds of their investment-grade status amid management’s refusal to raise tolls.

Fitch Ratings this week downgraded to BBB-minus from BBB the implied revenue bond rating on the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, and revised its outlook to negative from stable.

Catholic Health East Wednesday will convert $171.8 million of variable-rate bonds based on the London Interbank Offered Rate into fixed-rate mode in a multi-state transaction, but $74 million of similar bonds issued through a New Jersey conduit are absent from the offering.

DALLAS - The eight states of the Southwest region have already put their $30 billion share of the federal stimulus in motion, launching transportation projects, patching holes in their budgets, and restoring programs that would otherwise go begging.

DALLAS - In a ceremony overlooking one of metropolitan Denver's busiest freeways, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter yesterday signed SB 108 creating a $250 million revenue stream for bonds to accelerate road construction.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's fiscal 2010 budget request proposes what some see as an enormous and potentially damaging shift in the way state and local transportation projects are funded, and the idea is already drawing opposition from key lawmakers.

The New York Legislature took a step toward funding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital program last week when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, proposed tolling the Harlem and East River bridges and imposing a payroll tax. No legislation has been introduced, however, though lawmakers in both chambers are reviewing a draft program bill from Gov. David Paterson.

WASHINGTON - State and local governments need prompt guidance from the Treasury Department before they can issue the new taxable Build America or Recovery Zone bonds for cash subsidies or investor tax credits, market participants said last week.