Jim Watts

DALLAS - A coalition of school districts and taxpayers has filed suit in a Travis County state court to overturn Texas' system for funding public education.

An 18-story hotel in New Orleans that never reopened after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 will be imploded next month to make way for Louisiana State University’s new academic hospital.

DALLAS — A lengthy drought is putting a stranglehold on Texas water utilities that can only be alleviated by significant rainfall this winter, Fitch Ratings said in a new report assessing the economic impact of months of no or below-average rainfall in the Lone Star State.

Gillespie County in central Texas has hired an Austin construction management firm to help it plan for an election in November 2012 for $10.5 million of general obligation bonds to build a new jail in Fredericksburg.

Oklahoma is losing $185 million to $225 million a year in sales tax revenues to online marketers, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Tax Commission said last week in remarks to a legislative panel studying the state’s tax exemptions and exclusions.

Kansas revenues in September totaled $562 million, the Department of Revenue reported last week, marking the sixth consecutive month of higher revenues from the previous year.

Voters in Garland County will go to the polls Tuesday to decide on increasing the sales tax by 1% to build and operate a new $40 million county jail in Hot Springs.

Arkansas Lieut. Gov. Mark Darr said last week he opposes a proposal to raise the severance tax on natural gas production to help repair roads damaged by gas drilling activity.

DALLAS - Tax revenues that have rebounded to pre-recession levels will bring Texas' rainy-day fund to $7 billion by the time lawmakers begin development of the next two-year state budget.

DALLAS - Steady growth in Oklahoma's revenue collection is a sign that its economy is strengthening, Treasurer Ken Miller said Tuesday.

A new parish prison received the highest priority on a list of public safety projects that could be financed by a proposed bond program in East Baton Rouge Parish.

DALLAS - Oklahoma would replace or rebuild 706 sub-par bridges on state highways by 2019 without raising taxes or fees under a modernization plan outlined Monday by Gov. Mary Fallin.

Trustees of Arlington Independent School District last week authorized the refunding of $19.5 million of outstanding debt from a 2003 bond issue.

An updated report issued last week by the Texas Water Development Board said it will cost $53 billion over the next 50 years to build the new reservoirs, pipelines, treatment plants and other water infrastructure needed to keep the state from drying up.

New facilities and upgrades financed by the Forth Worth Independent School District’s $593.6 million bond program will benefit students for many years, superintendent Walter Dansby said last week.

Officials of the small town of Mesilla in Dona Ana County, N.M., are considering asking voters to increase the property tax next year to support general obligation bonds for the first time since the municipality was incorporated in 1959.

Colorado State Treasurer Walker Stapleton and Attorney General John Suthers have filed a lawsuit in a Denver state district court to obtain beneficiary information from the board that oversees the pension fund for state workers.

A ruling last week in a Pulaski County Circuit Court stymied efforts by the Arkansas Department of Education to withhold excess property tax revenues from school districts in Carroll and Garland counties.

DALLAS - Texas' chief revenue estimator told lawmakers Wednesday that revenues probably will not climb much this fiscal year, dimming hopes of avoiding another budget shortfall in two years.

DALLAS - Mississippi will take a $675.2 million, multi-part general obligation bond issue to market next week that will finance state capital improvement projects, provide funding for economic development efforts, and refinance existing debt.