Transportation industry

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority is selling $1.4 billion in revenue bonds to support a $7 billion capital program.

Kansas's 10-year, bond-financed highway program will slow to a crawl if lawmakers allow a sales tax to expire and divert transportation funds to other purposes, said Transportation Secretary Mike King.

The Ohio Senate last week approved a $7.6 billion, two-year transportation budget that includes authority to issue $1.5 billion of bonds backed by a new Ohio Turnpike credit to generate up to $3 billion for transportation projects.

County executives in southeast Michigan made their final appointments to a newly created four-county Regional Transit Authority.

The New York Thruway Authority says it is in the process of obtaining a $1.5 billion TIFIA loan, but U.S. DOT guidelines indicate the loan would be at least $200 million less.

Chicago narrowed the field of potential bidders on a Midway Airport lease down to six from among 16 responses it received during its request for qualifications process.

State senators seek more financial oversight of Kansas Turnpike Authority by merging it into Kansas Department of Transportation.

Chicago's motor fuel tax credit was downgraded three nothes by Moody's Investors Service as the agency notched the credit with Illinois bond rating.

After returning its balance sheet to the black, the Illinois International Port District plans to bolster its role in economic development and job creation by turning to private managers to raise the needed capital.

The Los Angeles City Council approved plans for a downtown street car last Wednesday that include up to $352 million over 30 years for operations costs, according to news reports.

Virginia's Elizabeth River Crossings tunnel project has been named the 2012 North America Toll Road Deal of the Year by Project Finance Magazine.

While it continues to assess less visible Hurricane Sandy damage, New York's MTA must move quickly on initial repair work, according to federal guidelines.

Louisiana will issue $84 million of highway revenue bonds in the first of three planned negotiated sales, two months after canceling a single $249.2 million sale.

The Chicago City Council will take up ordinances as soon as Wednesday authorizing up to $1.65 billion of O'Hare International Airport debt that will raise new money for the airport's $8 billion expansion.

Three Standard and Poor's analysts speaking in the wake of federal sequestration cuts said that public power utilities, water and sewer entities, and the transportation sector should all remain fairly stable for the next year despite a number of pressures.

The finance committee of New York's MTA approved up to $1.7 billion of transportation revenue bonds and Triborough Bridge bonds for capital projects.

S&P and Fitch Ratings this week held conference calls to detail the criteria driving their BBB ratings on Tuesday's sale of $641M of private activity bonds that will finance what is one of the only publicly rated public-private partnerships that features an availability-payment structure.

Florida is seeking qualified firms interested in a public-private partnership to build a $2.1B managed-lanes project on Interstate 4 through Orange and Seminole counties.

The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act has been touted by many as a crucial funding source for major projects, but most states have never used the program and say it has little value for them.

A 13-city tax district in North Texas for a $2.7 billion commuter rail line remains a possibility after State Sen. John Carona filed a bill to authorize its creation.