Jim Watts

Arkansas revenue in fiscal 2011 will meet earlier expectations, with 2012 revenue providing a small surplus at the end of the fiscal year, finance director Richard Weiss told top lawmakers last week.

Voters in North Little Rock will be surveyed over the next four weeks to determine if the electorate would support a 1% sales tax to finance a possible move of the Arkansas State Fair to the city.

The Texas Senate Finance Committee approved a two-year, $176.5 billion budget Thursday that could draw up to $3 billion from the state's rainy-day fund.

DALLAS — The chairman of the Texas Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday proposed a constitutional amendment to take $2 billion from the $25 billion Permanent School Fund to help soften proposed reductions to state aid for public education.

Voters will decide April 30 on the request for tax increases by the Tangipahoa Parish School District 116 to support the sale of $187 million of bonds to desegregate the parish’s public schools following the resolution of a years-long suit.

Shreveport may go to the market as early as June with the first tranche of $175 million of 20-year general obligation bonds approved by voters April 2.

DALLAS — Louisiana’s State Bond Commission declined Tuesday to approve a tax-exempt option for $75 million of bonds for a grocery distribution facility in St. Tammany Parish.

The official estimate of Kansas revenues fell last week, as the state's Consensus Estimating Group lowered its outlook for fiscal 2012 by $21.5 million. The revenue estimate in the remainder of fiscal 2011 was also lowered by $10.2 million.

Pulaski County Special School District trustees voted unanimously last week to seek approval from the Arkansas Board of Education for $104 million of general obligation bonds.

DALLAS — Sen. David Vitter, R-La., met last week with federal officials to oppose Louisiana’s request for credit enhancement on $400 million of revenue bonds for a new $1.2 billion teaching hospital in New Orleans.

DALLAS — A provision in the recent federal budget compromise will release $832 million of frozen education funds to Texas.

Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy last week continued his campaign to balance the state budget by eliminating thousands of state political patronage jobs and ending expensive consulting contracts.

DALLAS — The Odessa Junior College District will exhaust the debt capacity approved by voters in November 2010 with Wednesday’s negotiated sale of $68.5 million of limited-tax bonds.

State tax revenue in March of $1.6 billion was an increase of almost 10% from March 2010 totals, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said last week.

Voters in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow approved all four general obligation bond proposals at last week’s election, with every measure garnering at least 68% of the ballots cast.

Collections in all major Oklahoma tax categories were up in March, with revenues over the past 12 months up 5%.

The fiscal 2012 budget bill being developed in the Kansas Senate contains $55 million of bonds to continue renovation work at the statehouse in Topeka.

State revenues from all sources totaled $380.2 million in March, the Kansas Department of Revenue reported last week, which was $18.6 million below expectation but $19 million more than March 2010.

DALLAS — A Texas Senate subcommittee charged with finding billions of dollars in new, non-tax revenue has apparently located $5.5 billion that could be used to soften budget cuts that currently total $23 billion.

DALLAS — Texas cannot resolve its $23 billion revenue shortfall without a revision to an underperforming business tax, Senate Finance Committee chairman Steve Ogden said Tuesday.