finance

Fitch are rating North Carolina Turnpike Authority's Triangle Expressway bonds 'BBB-'. They include:

- $211m of Triangle Expressway (TE) current interest revenue bonds

- $84m of TE capital appreciation bonds

- $400m of TIFIA debt

Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is getting $4.3m as part of a $37m settlement between international banker UBS and the state attorney-general Martha Coakley over auction-rate securitiies. Most of the money will go to about 20 towns and cities.

The Fitch bond rating company thinks that Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) $1.7b of bonds (presently AA- with Stable Outlook) presently is likely to remain a strong investment despite the large extra borrowing and annual payments it is undertaking to the state DOT in return for a 50 year toll lease of I-80. The raters say that the Pike's new debt will be acquired gradually giving the opportunity to monitor its strength.

Plans to end tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike are excoriated in a lengthy report of a transport finance commission (MTFC) set up by the state legislature. Sub-titled "An unsustainable system" the report says the Romney administration and its predecessors have left a shocking financial legacy of high cost but skimped maintenance even while going deeper into debt to cover current costs - a tale of the Big Dig writ large in widespread mismanagement of the state's highways.