Transportation industry

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority yesterday approved Jeffrey Mullan as executive director while it waits to see if the state will avert scheduled July 1 toll hikes with a $100 million bailout.

Portsmouth expects to sell $12 million of general obligation refunding bonds next Wednesday.

The New York State Thruway Authority approved two state-backed tax-exempt bond deals totaling $716 million at its board meeting yesterday.

Long Island Rail Road president Helena Williams will take over as interim executive director and chief executive officer New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, pending board approval, the MTA announced Thursday.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The recession and collapse of the credit markets have forced the Mississippi Department of Transportation to push back the procurement schedule for its first public-private partnership - a new 12-mile toll road.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Florida Department of Transportation said yesterday that the agency did not receive bids from any of the six respondents that had shown interest in leasing an existing 78-mile-long toll road known as Alligator Alley.

DALLAS - Amid severe financial pressure on state coffers, the Arizona Transportation Board is preparing to price $440 million of excise-tax-backed revenue bonds for projects, primarily in the Phoenix area.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s finance committee voted to approve the issuance of $340 million of Metro Matters bonds.

CHICAGO — Chicago would use the $126 million in earnest money, which it received from a private consortium after it failed to raise the financing needed to complete the $2.52 billion lease of Midway Airport, to help balance the budget and repay debt for neighborhood infrastructure, under a plan proposed by Mayor Richard Daley this week.

WASHINGTON — Aviation groups are pushing for airport bonds to be permanently exempted from the alternative minimum tax, arguing that the it impairs airports’ ability to issue bonds to finance construction.

WASHINGTON — Key lawmakers in the Senate yesterday introduced transportation legislation that would move the country away from driving as a primary mode of moving both people and goods, improve the quality of highway and bridge infrastructure, and provide the transportation secretary with significant new oversight and planning duties.

An eleventh-hour plan the Bush administration had crafted to auction flight slots at New York City-area airports to the highest bidder has been halted, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced yesterday.

The Virginia Port Authority expects to sell $65 million of bond anticipation notes on Tuesday as it grapples with slower shipping business amid the recession. The Bans are rated MIG-1 by Moody’s Investors Service and SP-1-plus by Standard & Poor’s.

WASHINGTON - The House Transportation Committee chairman is likely to soon introduce a multi-year funding bill that will propose major programmatic changes in the Transportation Department and create a new congestion-relief program with several bond components for 68 metropolitan areas, according to a handwritten outline recently presented to some key stakeholders.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to market bonds on a new credit using a new dedicated revenue stream that the state established last week, officials said at a special board meeting convened yesterday to reduce fare and toll increases.

President Obama's budget proposes to hike the marginal tax rates of the wealthy to 36% and 39.6% beginning in fiscal 2011, and to increase by 5% the capital gains and dividends tax rate for the wealthy - tax changes that market participants say could lead to higher demand for tax-exempt bonds.

The fiscal storm that buffeted New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority for months has abated somewhat after lawmakers finally came up with new revenue streams for the stressed agency, but the forecast is still cloudy.

WASHINGTON — The North Carolina Turnpike Authority’s board moved forward with a $650 million toll road bond deal — its first and the largest of any issuer in the state — after obtaining bond insurance from Assured Guaranty Corp.

Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have introduced two bills that pro-tolling market participants worry would put a halt to public-private partnerships for highways.

The North Carolina Turnpike Authority has received a conditional letter of commitment from Assured Guaranty Corp. that could allow it to issue its first bonds in June, says executive director, David Joyner.