Jim Watts

The El Paso City Council gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a $63 million issue of certificates of obligation for a variety of capital projects. The debt will be issued in October.

Arkansas will begin work soon on highway projects financed with proceeds from Tuesday's competitive sale of $225 million of Garvee bonds. It is the first tranche from a $575 million Garvee program authorized by voters in 2011.

The third drop in Oklahoma energy production taxes in the last six months pushed August state revenues below those of August 2011. State brought in $819.6 million, down from $842.9 million last year.

Trustees of Lafayette Parish School Board, La. will consider a spending plan for the proceeds from a $30 million general obligation bond issue.

Revenue anticipation notes are an option for Louisiana local governments to pay costs from Hurricane Isaac until federal emergency funds begin flowing, State Treasurer John Kennedy said.

An Oklahoma lawmaker asked the state attorney general to determine if Tulsa County's $750 million Vision2 proposal violates the state constitution.

The New Mexico Finance Authority voted to pay its interim CEO through March 2013, while its permanent CEO is on paid administrative leave.

Crawford County, Ark., Judge John Hall said the county should know how much it will cost to build a new jail and where to build it in time for a March 2013 election.

The Little Rock, Ark., Board of Directors last week delayed a decision on how to allocate city funds to infrastructure projects until after a Sept. 11 bond election.

Glendale, Ariz., officials are developing a five-year plan to deal with the end of a 0.7% sales tax set to expire in 2017.

Oklahoma voters on Aug. 28 rejected more new school debt than they approved, with passage of16 public school bond proposals totaling $34 million.

Kansas will issue $5.4 million of bonds as part of a $17 million package to wrap up financing for a 10-year renovation effort at the State Capitol in Topeka.

Trustees of Tyler Independent School District last week declined to call a general obligation bond election for November after discussing a proposal for several weeks.

Tulsa County Republican Party Committee last week censured two Tulsa County commissioners who set an election in November on extending an existing county-wide sales tax.

Reconciliation of state agency budgets at the end of fiscal 2012 put an additional $21.4 million into Oklahoma’s Constitutional Reserve Fund last week.

State revenues in fiscal 2014 are expected to total $5.9 billion, up $272 million from fiscal 2013 collections, according to a new fiscal forecast outlined last week to the Legislative Finance Committee.

Pulaski Technical College trustees decided last week to delay indefinitely an election to set up a taxing district for the school.

The $747.8 million of state general fund collections in July was more than $16 million above what was expected in the first month of fiscal 2013 when the state budget was adopted in May and $18 million more than in July 2011.

An increase in Lubbock County's property tax rate will allow the West Texas county to cope with financial and political problems if President Obama is re-elected in November, Judge Tom Head said Wednesday.

The Retired State Employees Association of Louisiana filed a suit in state court Aug. 16 to stop the implementation of a new state pension plan proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and passed by the 2012 Legislature.