Transportation industry

New York's Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, a credit of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is gearing up to sell $1 billion of revenue bonds tomorrow to help support capital projects on the system's bridges and tunnels.

Now that New Jersey's fiscal 2009 budget is signed, sealed, and delivered, attention in the Garden State turns once again to financing transportation infrastructure as two senators this week proposed allowing a private company to manage certain lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Pennsylvania will issue roughly $1.2 billion of general obligation and state appropriation debt in fiscal 2009 after Gov. Edward Rendell signed off on nearly $3 billion of borrowing to be issued over the next three to five years.

DALLAS - After winning a positive response from the market with a $125 million deal last month, the North Texas Tollway Authority is ready to continue its record year in debt issuance by pricing $1 billion of second-tier revenue bonds this week.

High gas prices are keeping motorists off Oklahoma’s highways, causing a dip in gasoline tax revenues at a time when construction costs are increasing rapidly.

Congress last week passed stopgap legislation that would extend through Sept. 30 funding for the Federal Aviation Administration that includes grants to airports for improvement projects. The bill was approved after lawmakers removed provisions that would have added $8 billion to the Highway Trust Fund.

DALLAS - The Oklahoma Department of Transportation will complete the first phase of a $500 million debt program with a $100 million negotiated sale in early fall.

CHICAGO - Merrill Lynch & Co. has scooped up nearly 30 public finance bankers from the ranks of the now-shuttered municipal group at UBS Securities LLC - taking advantage of a "once-in-a-decade opportunity" as its Wall Street neighbors shed staff to cope with subprime market-related losses, the firm's municipal chairman said.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Florida Department of Transportation is starting a new search for a concessionaire to become the first to lease an existing toll road in the state.

WASHINGTON - Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine's transportation plan died in the legislature yesterday after the House Rule Committee refused to let it come before the full House.

SAN FRANCISCO - Facing rising interest costs triggered by downgrades to Ambac Assurance Corp., the Orange County Transportation Authority is moving forward with plans to refinance toll revenue bonds it issued in 2003 to acquire toll lanes on the State Route 91 freeway from private owners.

DALLAS - With the airline industry in turmoil, Denver continued to restructure its variable-rate debt with $85 million of revenue bonds for Denver International Airport yesterday.

CHICAGO - The push for light rail and commuter mass transit in southeast Michigan would receive a boost under a proposed bill that expands the state's tax increment financing law to include funding for transit systems.

The Louisiana Legislature approved a bill calling for a study on transferring New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport from local to state control before adjourning the 2008 regular session earlier this week.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation on Tuesday is holding a mandatory workshop in Jackson for all firms and consortiums interested in submitting qualifications to enter into the state’s first public-private partnership.

After the third day of a General Assembly special session, a bill from Gov. Timothy Kaine that would increase taxes and revive the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s ability to issue bonds has been bypassed by lawmakers in both the Republican-controlled House of Delegates and the Democrat-controlled Senate.

The nation should not continue to rely on gas tax revenues to finance transportation infrastructure needs because soaring gas prices will likely force consumers to drive less, resulting in less revenue coming in, Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine and U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said yesterday at a meeting here.

DALLAS - The Dallas City Council is expected today to establish a local government corporation that would issue more than $300 million of lease revenue bonds to finance a six-year terminal modernization effort at Love Field Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration last week said it would lift flight caps at O’Hare International Airport later this year after Chicago opens the first new runway as part of a $7.5 billion expansion plan.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Georgia's State Transportation Board Thursday adopted a financial management plan to pay down an estimated $1.2 billion deficit at the Georgia Department of Transportation in order to balance the fiscal 2008 budget.