Transportation industry

Orange County supervisors will vote Tuesday to send out requests for proposals to underwriters for upcoming bond issues for John Wayne Airport.

Florida’s controversial first leasing of an existing toll road is bogged down due to the volume of questions and comments received from the six consortiums asked to submit bids, the Florida Department of Transportation said in a notice on Monday.

While a $12.8 billion long-term lease bid for the Pennsylvania Turnpike expired this week, Gov. Edward Rendell plans to revisit the issue in the next two-year legislative session.

President Bush has signed into law a short-term appropriations bill to keep the federal government in operation through March 6, and a six-month stopgap measure that will fund the Federal Aviation Administration and its airport construction grant program through the end of that month. Both laws include bond-related provisions totaling more than $8 billion.

CHICAGO - After postponing a planned bond issue this week amid ongoing market turmoil, the Wayne County Airport Authority - operator of Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport - hopes to enter a more stable market within the next few weeks with its third refunding issue in the last five months.

New York will study the potential privatization of state assets through long-term leases, Gov. David Paterson announced yesterday. Public-private partnerships could allow the state to leverage its assets to make investments in long-term infrastructure projects, the governor's office said.

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority’s executive director, Brian McPartlin, announced last week he would step down later this month to take a private-sector job.

WASHINGTON - Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials postponed the sale of $175 million airport system revenue bonds that was scheduled to come to market today in a negotiated deal after market conditions remained uncertain yesterday.

CHICAGO - Chicago would receive $2.52 billion under a pioneering lease agreement that, if approved by city and federal authorities, would hand over operations of Midway Airport to a private consortium - Midway Investment and Development Co. LLC - for 99 years, Mayor Richard Daley announced yesterday.

DALLAS - Utah lawmakers are bracing for a difficult regular legislative session in January after covering a $354 million budget shortfall in a special session last week.

Congress over the weekend approved and delivered to President Bush a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government at current levels for more than five months and authorize $6.5 billion of bond-related community development funds. But a multibillion-dollar economic stimulus package that was approved in the House Friday seemed unlikely to get full congressional approval as of yesterday.

CHICAGO - Following Chicago's lead, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is advancing plans to pursue the privatization of Mitchell International Airport, including $500,000 in his proposed $1.4 billion 2009 budget to hire a consultant to help put together a lease deal.

DALLAS - With $756 million of debt waiting to be issued, Denver is hoping conditions might improve enough today to get one of three deals out the door.

WASHINGTON - The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for months has been planning to bring $175 million of revenue bonds to market in a negotiated deal on Wednesday. But MWAA officials, like those of many other issuers, say the pricing of their deal will depend on what, if any, action Congress takes over the weekend to quell turmoil in the financial markets.

New York plans to replace the aging Tappan Zee Bridge with a new $16 billion bridge and bus rapid transit system that would include commuter rail, the state announced Friday.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority last week reviewed different toll-increase scenarios in order to generate needed revenue.

Time is running out on a $12.8 billion proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 75 years as the measure continues to stall in committee and could fail to receive a formal vote before the legislature's two-year session ends on Dec. 31.

Senate Democratic leaders unveiled a second economic stimulus package yesterday that would provide $56.2 billion in federal funding, including large infusions of cash to finance highway infrastructure and airport construction, and bond-related state revolving funds for wastewater projects.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service has closed an examination of $373 million of airport revenue bonds that were issued in 2005 by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission with no change to the tax-exempt status of the bonds, it was announced Wednesday.

DALLAS - Amid market upheaval and presidential warnings of a Wall Street panic, the North Texas Tollway Authority yesterday closed on $609 million of system revenue bonds as it exited a swap agreement with the defunct Lehman Brothers Derivative Products on a previous deal.