Transportation industry

The Georgia General Assembly Friday ended its 2009 regular session without agreement on new funding for transportation projects as well as measures that would have helped the state's largest transit agency with its budget problems.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority the week of April 20 will sell $650 million of long-term revenue debt, including $250 million of taxable Build America Bonds, the first new-money sale for the authority since 2005 and the largest sale to date of the new class of securities.

DALLAS - With Texas facing the first drop in fuel-tax revenues in nearly two decades, state Sen. John Carona yesterday called for passage of his bill that would allow counties in metro areas to seek local tax increases.

Starved for new capital funding, the Regional Transportation Authority last week praised the Illinois General Assembly's passage and Gov. Pat Quinn's signing of a $9 billion capital program that provides $900 million for public transit.

DALLAS - As airlines struggled with soaring fuel prices last year, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport capitalized on the energy boom, earning $28 million in royalties on gas production on its 18,092-acre property.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to refinance $167 million of auction-rate securities Wednesday, as it works to clear its variable-rate debt portfolio of more than a half-billion dollars of poorly performing assets.

Investors who own billions of dollars of debt issued by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority are waiting to see how they would fare if the agencies are consolidated or merged in order to reduce costs.

New York lawmakers could be called to a special session next week to consider legislation to bail out the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Gov. David Paterson said last week.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The $1.2 billion Port of Miami Tunnel project will undergo another procurement process, Florida’s Department of Transportation chief said late Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - A Chicago-area real estate company has proposed an unsolicited 60-year concession to operate the Port of Virginia that would give the state an up-front payment of $500 million and $8.9 billion over the life of the deal.

DALLAS - Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday approved a $13 billion state budget for fiscal 2010 that relies on spending cuts, fund adjustments, and $585 million in federal stimulus funds to eliminate an expected $680 million revenue shortfall next year.

CHICAGO - Chicago will give the private consortium that wants to lease the city's Midway Airport for 99 years for an up-front payment of $2.5 billion up to an additional six months to put its financing scheme together.

CHICAGO - Ohio lawmakers were poised to vote late yesterday on a $9.6 billion, two-year state transportation budget that would include a new bond program as well as expanded authority for the state to enter into public-private partnerships to raise revenue.

SAN FRANCISCO - Transportation projects are in front of the line as California disburses the larger than expected proceeds of last week's general obligation bond sale.

A state legislative panel approved a request from the Ohio Department of Transportation to set aside $450,000 in funding to study the cost of setting up passenger rail service among the state’s major cities.

DALLAS - The Oklahoma Transportation Commission on Monday awarded $228.4 million of construction contracts financed by money the state will receive from the $787 billion federal infrastructure stimulus plan.

DALLAS - Development of a $1.5 billion DFW Connector project is expected to begin this year to funnel traffic to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport within five years.

J. Randolph "Randy" Babbitt, a longtime pilot and aviation consultant, will be nominated by President Obama to be the new chief of the Federal Aviation Administration under the Department of Transportation, the White House said Friday.

WASHINGTON - The airport sector's troubled credit outlook will continue into 2010, and airport issuers' will likely experience more ratings downgrades and negative outlook actions during that time, Fitch Ratings warned in a report yesterday. However, it said the downgrades probably won't be worse than one or two notches.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority plans to come to market tomorrow with $163 million of variable-rate airport system revenue bonds backed by a standby bond purchase agreement from Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg.