Transportation industry

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.

Miami-Dade County commissioners meeting Tuesday refused to advance a proposal that could have led to the repeal of a half-cent transit tax that has leveraged $461 million of debt. But efforts to repeal the tax may not be over yet.

Overall costs on a parking garage financed with municipal bonds in Washington, N.J., have ballooned nearly five times from original estimates to $2.7 million, according to a state-level audit of the borough.

The head of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority resigned effective May 22 to comply with a provision of the MTA bailout.

The New York Senate was expected to finish a bill last night to close a funding gap for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that would create revenue streams to support up to $6 billion of bonds for the transit system, a spokesman for the Senate majority said.

New Jersey will revamp its underwriting pool in the next few weeks, with an eye to bringing in firms that offer transportation financing strategies for the state.

DALLAS - With some trepidation, Denton County, north of Dallas and Fort Worth, will test the strength of its triple-A credit rating in a competitive sale of $104 million of general obligation bonds next week.

A long-term plan for capital financing for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority appeared to be off the table yesterday as New York lawmakers kept talking about a rescue plan for the troubled agency.

Three road projects in Oklahoma financed with federal infrastructure stimulus funds got under way last week, one month after the contracts were approved by the Oklahoma Transportation Commission.

CHICAGO - The vote late last week by the Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Finance Committee to create regional transportation authorities with taxing powers in the Milwaukee and Madison areas has generated praise and criticism - with some calling on lawmakers and Gov. Jim Doyle to reject the package.