Jim Watts

Kansas Governor-elect Sam Brownback said last week the Legislature should not act to repeal the recent increase in the state sales tax until revenue collections improve.

DALLAS — Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe Wednesday unveiled a proposed fiscal 2012 general fund budget of $4.59 billion that is minimally higher than the current spending plan.

Trustees of two Louisiana school districts voted last week to seek approval to issue a total of $25 million of federal qualified school construction bonds.

East Baton Rouge Parish president Melvin Holden has proposed a $740.9 million balanced budget for 2011 that projects a 1% increase in sales tax revenue.

DALLAS — Kansas’ projected expenditures will outstrip revenues by almost $500 million in fiscal 2012 under a new financial forecast released Tuesday by the official Consensus Estimating Group.

The North East Independent School District may take a $250 million to $350 million general obligation bond request to voters in May 2011.

The Texas business margins tax lawmakers hoped would boost revenues seems to be a bust, according to the preliminary report by a 21-member task force looking into the tax.

A coalition of Kansas school districts filed suit in a Topeka district court last week seeking to overturn portions of the state’s funding formula for public education.

New bond-financed higher education facilities must include a dedicated maintenance fund before the projects will be approved, under a new policy adopted last week by the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Arkansas general fund revenues were up in October for the sixth straight month, with gains in every category.

The chief financial officer of the Houston Independent School District told trustees on Thursday to expect a severe reduction in state and federal funding over the next two fiscal years.

BP will provide an additional $218 million for Louisiana’s efforts to recover from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Trustees of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education last week took the first step in a process that could result in the state taking direct financial oversight of the St. Helena Parish School District.

DALLAS — An Arkansas district judge gave the state the go-ahead Tuesday to tabulate the votes on a measure lifting the constitutional ceiling on public debt interest rates.

The San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association are the single largest contributor to a group formed to support the San Antonio Independent School District’s request for $515 million of general obligation bonds.

The unfunded liability of the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System grew by more than $900 million in fiscal 2010, totaling $10.4 billion as of June 30.

University of Oklahoma Board of Regents last week gave final approval for a $48 million revenue bond issue to finance a fourth building at the university’s Partners Place research campus.

State House and Senate committees have agreed on a proposal to increase Arkansas’ support of public education by almost $60 million in fiscal 2012.

Mesa voters will decide today on whether the city can build a spring training facility for Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs and issue $202 million of revenue bonds for the city’s utilities.

DALLAS — The Dallas Independent School District will take $1.03 billion of bonds to market the week before Thanksgiving in a competitive sale that will exhaust more than $2.7 billion of total debt approved by voters in 2008 and 2002.