Jim Watts

A broader sales tax base in Oklahoma could provide the revenue needed to slash the top income tax rate, House Speaker pro tem Jeff Hickman said Monday.

Oklahoma general fund collections were up 9% in October due to gains in personal income tax revenue and improvements in the tax on oil and natural gas production.

Lowering the state income tax rate will depend on removing ineffective tax credits and rebates from the books, Rep. David Dank, R-Oklahoma City, said.

Kansas October general fund revenues of $477 million were 7% less than expected, but Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan said the drop was due to a calendar quirk.

State colleges and universities in Arkansas will ask the 2013 General Assembly for an additional $137 million in fiscal 2014.

Arkansas collected $355.6 million in general fund revenue in October, down $21.6 million from expected collections.

Arizona State University halted talks about joining the city of Mesa and the Chicago Cubs on a new baseball facility being built with $84 million of general obligation bonds.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu delivered a proposed budget along with a warning that state spending cuts to higher education and health care will hinder the city’s return to prosperity.

A $1.3 billion network of bond-financed highways linking major cities in Arkansas would enhance the state’s economy and quality of life, proponents said Tuesday.

The $63.6 billion of outstanding debt from school districts in Texas at the end of fiscal 2011 accounts for a third of total outstanding local debt, Comptroller Susan Combs said.

Trustees of Dallas Independent School District voted last week to move to negotiated sales for future bond issues in a shift from the district's policy of competitive issues.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback last week endorsed legislation that would require local governments to lower their property tax rates automatically when assessed valuations increase.

More than half of those polled by the University of Arkansas in a recent telephone survey favor a proposed sales tax increase to support $1.3 billion of state highway revenue bonds.

The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved $22.3 million of revenue bonds for projects at three colleges.

Proponents of an elevated hiking trail in Scottsdale, Ariz. said they would seek $25 million for the first phase of the project in a proposed $250 million bond referendum in November 2013.

Voters in unincorporated Ascension Parish, La., will vote on a 0.5% sales tax that would support $80 million of revenue bonds for road improvements.

The Louisiana will sell $350 million of state road bonds at one time rather than spreading the deal into three tranches, on the advice of Treasurer John Kennedy.

Opponents seeking to overturn the way Texas finances its public schools said Monday the current funding mechanism is inequitable and inadequate.

An Oklahoma state audit of the half-completed American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma City criticized the facility’s spending but found no financial wrongdoing.

Voters in Santa Fe County, N.M. will decide on a three-part, $35 million general obligation bond referendum.