Jim Watts

DALLAS - The Louisiana State Bond Commission gave the go-ahead Thursday for the sale of $31 million of tax-credit bonds to finance an energy-efficiency effort at state prisons.

DALLAS - Travis County, Texas, commissioners Tuesday set a Nov. 8 election for a two-part request for $214.9 million of general obligation bonds.

The Louisiana Legislature failed to implement long-term financial solutions while balancing the fiscal 2012 budget, Treasurer John Kennedy said last week in a letter to the editor sent to media outlets in the state.

Travis County commissioners are expected to vote Tuesday night to call a Nov. 8 election on a bond referendum totaling at least $194.3 million.

The North East Independent School District's citizens planning and advisory committee has recommended that the San Antonio district call a general obligation bond election in November.

Texas sales tax revenues totaled $1.86 billion in July, up 10.3% from collections in July 2010.

Voters in the Tulsa suburb of Owasso will go to the polls Oct. 11 to decide on a two-part public improvement program totaling $25 million of general obligation bonds.

The Garland County Quorum Court last week called for a special election on Oct. 11 for two proposed sales tax increases totaling 1%. The revenue would finance construction and operations of a new county jail in Hot Springs.

DALLAS - Last week's downgrade of the United States' credit by Standard & Poor's is a sign that "our nation is in trouble," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday in a speech in San Antonio to a national convention of 1,300 state legislators.

DALLAS - A proposed $748 million capital improvement plan for East Baton Rouge Parish, La., was officially killed Wednesday night by the Metropolitan Council.

Officials of the Parishwide School District of Orleans Parish and the state-operated New Orleans Recovery School District said Monday they would revise current plans to ensure that New Orleans’ hurricane-damaged schools will be rebuilt or replaced with the $2 billion in federal aid already received for the effort.

DALLAS - Oklahoma put $249.2 million of fiscal 2011 revenues into its rainy-day fund on Monday, up from July's estimate of a $219 million deposit.

Revenue collections were up in July from a year ago, Oklahoma Treasurer Ken Miller said last week, though the string of double-digit increases from 2010 was broken.

Kansas has offered incentives to induce state workers to retire early in an effort to reduce the payroll by 4,000 from the current 23,000 workers.

Arkansas revenues of $377 million in July were $2.4 million below expectations but $6.4 million more than collected in July 2010.

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola was joined last week by public safety officials and community activists at a rally promoting the city’s proposed sales tax increase.

A task force charged with determining Scottsdale’s capital needs met for the first time last week as the City Council moves towards a possible general obligation bond election in the fall of 2012.

DALLAS - Dwight D. Burns, former executive director of the Texas Public Finance Authority, has joined TKG & Associates LLC as a principal at the firm's Dallas office.

DALLAS - Proponents of a plan to finance capital improvements in Little Rock with a sales tax increase began a campaign Tuesday to gain public approval for Mayor Mark Stodola's proposal.

DALLAS - A majority of the East Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council backs a plan to study the parish's law enforcement needs and seek voter approval if a tax hike is needed to finance improvements.