Transportation industry

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley last week replaced his chief of staff Paul Volpe with Raymond Orozco, who had led the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Volpe will become budget director of the Chicago Transit Authority.

DALLAS — The Port of Houston Authority of Harris County will take advantage of its highly rated credit tomorrow by offering $327 million of refunding bonds, a deal that comes amid major expansion plans for one of the nation’s busiest cargo and petro-chemical facilities.

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters joined a push by House lawmakers yesterday to revamp the federal transportation funding system, which currently has “donor states” such as Texas paying more into the federal highway trust fund than they get back.

The Court of Federal Claims has rejected Wells Fargo & Co.’s attempt to claim a $115 million tax deduction stemming from 26 sale-in, lease-out transactions, 17 of which involved public transit agencies, saying that the deals lacked economic substance.

The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission is working on a new $310 million bridge to replace the current Interstate 95/Scudder Falls Bridge that connects New Jersey and Pennsylvania and is more than 50 years old.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority should prioritize which services could be restored if the New York Legislature finds additional funding, a state lawmaker said at a hearing yesterday.

Lower-than-expected construction bids have led the Idaho Transportation Board to reduce its latest request for Garvee bond authority.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Miami-Dade County next week plans to offer $600 million of aviation revenue bonds to continue financing for a major capital improvement program at Miami International Airport that is nearing completion.

DALLAS — The funding gap for the Denver area’s FasTracks transit plan has grown to $2.5 billion — a $300 million increase since 2009 — even though the construction cost estimate has fallen by nearly the same amount, according to the Regional Transportation District.

WASHINGTON — The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority yesterday announced a financing team for $250 million to $600 million of bonds it plans to sell in the spring to help finance the Dulles International Airport Metrorail extension.

Sean Connaughton, appointed by governor-elect Robert F. McDonnell to be secretary of transportation, will be jumping into his new position a month after the Virginia Department of Transportation lowered its revenue estimates for fiscal 2010.

DALLAS — A joint Kansas legislative committee has passed along two versions of a plan for financing the state’s next 10-year transportation effort to the Legislature, which will begin its 2010 session on Monday.

What do you get when you mix a protracted recession with a series of overly optimistic projections and a credit guarantee from a borderline insolvent bond insurer?

CHICAGO — Standard & Poor’s has upgraded 10 local borrowers that have issued debt through the Michigan Transportation Fund — boosting most of them to top AAA marks— primarily due to high debt-service coverage.

WASHINGTON — For cash-strapped state and local governments that have critical transportation infrastructure needs, but no money to pay for them, the coming year will be bittersweet.

Gary Dellaverson, chief financial officer of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, retired last week after 19 years at the agency.

WASHINGTON — The coming year could be fertile ground for public-private partnerships, especially in the transportation sector, but states and localities probably will have to go without federal help and enter deals cautiously so as not to kill public support for them, market sources say.

A Michigan state lawmaker representing Detroit introduced a bill that would establish a bond-issuing regional mass transit authority for his region.

Fitch Ratings last week downgraded to A from A-plus roughly $1.24 billion of debt issued on behalf of the Indianapolis Airport Authority.

New Jersey Gov.-elect Chris Christie will take office next month, and along with confronting high property taxes, a heavy debt burden, and the issue of encouraging shared services at the local level, the new administration will face a transportation funding spigot set to dry up by mid-2011.