Jim Watts

DALLAS - More than 100 school districts in Texas have passed board resolutions to join a promised legal challenge seeking to reconfigure the state's system for financing public education.

DALLAS - The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority will reduce its exposure to the vagaries of variable-rate debt and cut its debt service costs with next week's negotiated sale of $521.7 million of revenue refunding bonds.

DALLAS - Texas Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, outlined a 10-part, 10-year plan Tuesday to build an academic hospital and medical school at the University of Texas in Austin.

The Louisiana Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget last week accepted a revised business plan for a $1.088 billion state hospital in New Orleans.

DALLAS - Voters in North Little Rock, Ark., will decide whether to raise the city's sales tax rate by up to 1% at a special election set for Nov. 8.

Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District said it saved $16.5 million of interest costs with the first sale from its $124.5 million bond package approved by voters in May.

San Antonio Independent School District trustees voted last week to be a party in a proposed lawsuit seeking to overturn the system for allocating state funds to public school districts.

Voters handily approved a request last week for $90.5 million of general obligation bonds by Oklahoma County Independent School District No. 52. The measure passed with 81% in favor from the more than 4,300 voters going to the polls.

The chairman and co-chair of a state tax reform panel last week urged the group to support a gradual elimination of Oklahoma’s personal income tax.

The local chapter of the Americans For Prosperity anti-tax group is challenging Wichita’s plan to provide $30 million of incentives and bonds for a downtown hotel project.

Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration is preparing a package of lower taxes and regulatory reforms that could serve as a national model, the secretary of the Kansas Department of Revenue said last week.

DALLAS - The Louisiana State Bond Commission on Thursday authorized $18 million of revenue bonds supported by state payments for a tuition-free public charter school in Lake Charles.

DALLAS - Little Rock, Ark., voters approved an increase in the sales tax rate Tuesday that will generate $196 million for capital improvements over the next 10 years and $32 million a year for operations.

Financing public safety needs with bond proceeds could endanger East Baton Rouge Parish’s bond ratings, Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden told a committee on Monday.

DALLAS - Loyola University New Orleans plans to renovate and expand five structures on its campus in the uptown section of New Orleans with proceeds from $125 million of revenue bonds.

Texas sales tax collections totaled $1.98 billion in August, the highest monthly total in three years, Comptroller Susan Combs said last week.

Voters in the Boerne Independent School District will decide Nov. 8 on a three-part, $87.8 million general obligation bond package set for election last week by district trustees.

Trustees of San Antonio’s Harlandale Independent School District voted last week to waive attorney-client privilege so its law firm can cooperate with the Bexar County district attorney in a probe into a school bond program.

Oklahoma revenue collections resumed their double-digit increases in August after dipping into single-digit territory in July, state Treasurer Ken Miller said last week.

Businesses and organizations associated with the chairman of the Arkansas Highway Commission are the major contributors in support of a statewide election in November to reauthorize $525 million of grant anticipation revenue vehicle bonds.