Transportation industry

CHICAGO - Fitch Ratings this week lowered its rating to A-minus from A on roughly $215 million of outstanding debt issued for the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport as the airport faces impending service cuts by its largest carrier, Delta Air Lines Inc., which is merging its operations with Northwest Airlines Corp.

DALLAS - A Sunset Advisory Commission vote to abolish the Texas Transportation Commission - the largest issuer of state debt in Texas - sets up another legislative showdown over highway funding when lawmakers convene in Austin next month.

Gov. Charlie Crist has been asked by Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz to reconsider the Florida Department of Transportation’s decision not to close the deal on the $1.2 billion Port of Miami Tunnel project.

WASHINGTON - Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., was reported yesterday to be President-elect Barack Obama's pick for Secretary of Transportation, surprising experts in the field who had thought other candidates were more obvious choices for the post.

CHICAGO - The Minnesota Metropolitan Airports Commission will hold a special meeting next week to discuss a tentative agreement that would allow Delta Air Lines Inc. to close its former Northwest Airlines Corp. headquarters in Eagan without triggering the immediate repayment of $245 million of debt.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey both passed their 2009 budgets yesterday, but their fiscal circumstances couldn't be more different.

CHICAGO - As unlikely as it may seem, Michigan can provide something of a model for states facing revenue and job losses stemming from a deteriorating U.S. automobile industry, Moody's Investors Service analysts said yesterday after releasing a report on the likely impacts from the fallout.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick will begin searching for a new transportation secretary after Bernard Cohen on Monday resigned from the post.

The Oklahoma Transportation Commission last week approved spending up to $9 million to hire nine engineering consulting firms to ensure that $180 million of road projects would be ready to go out for bids quickly if Congress approves an infrastructure stimulus package in January.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Florida Department of Transportation on Friday suddenly pulled the plug on the long-awaited $1.2 billion Port of Miami tunnel project and said it would not close on the state's largest pubic-private partnership with the consortium known as Miami Access Tunnel.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is looking for swap counterparties that it hopes will be able to take over derivative contracts with a subsidiary of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the agency said yesterday.

Lawmakers last week conducted a second public hearing on Massachusetts’ transportation financing woes and Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal to consolidate existing authorities.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey last Monday won another round in an ongoing fight to stop the Bush administration from auctioning flight slots at its airports when the U.S. Court of Appeals granted it a stay.

WASHINGTON - To fill the void left by bond insurers, highly rated states and authorities should consider providing a temporary guarantee or credit enhancement to lower-rated issuers that cannot access the municipal market at reasonable rates for transportation projects, market participants said at a conference here last week.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey proposed a record $3.3 billion of capital spending in 2009 as part of a $6.71 billion preliminary budget released yesterday. Slightly more than half of the capital program would be financed through bonds and notes.

WASHINGTON - State and local governments must be given federal assistance through tax code revisions, stimulus legislation, and financial aid to help with operational costs, governors from New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin told the House Appropriations Committee at a hearing here yesterday.

Senators late yesterday were trying to determine if they had enough votes to approve automaker bailout legislation containing provisions that could prevent 31 transit agencies from having to make $2 billion to $4 billion in termination payments on leaseback deals that technically defaulted after their guarantors' ratings were downgraded.

CHICAGO - Indiana will collect nearly $1 billion less revenue than originally expected during its upcoming 2009-2011 biennium, fiscal analysts warned yesterday.

WASHINGTON - State revolving funds that rely on investment returns to subsidize loans should be worried about unexpected losses in liquidity and declining future returns, Moody's Investors Service analysts said in a report yesterday.

New Jersey's Local Finance Board yesterday authorized a portion of Bayonne's mixed-use Peninsula Project New York Harbor for tax increment financing, the first step in gaining state approval for such borrowing.