Jim Watts

Casinos in Oklahoma operated by Native American tribes contributed $118.2 million to the state in fiscal 2010, up from $105.6 million in fiscal 2009.

The Pine Bluff City Council has joined Jefferson County officials in support of a combined 1% sales tax increase in the county.

Arizona Treasurer Dean Martin said he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination to run for governor late last week to avoid splitting the party as the state fights a federal lawsuit over its new immigration law.

DALLAS — New Orleans is a great city whose municipal finances are in shambles, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Thursday in his first state of the city address since taking office in early May.

DALLAS — The Port of Seattle will upgrade equipment at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and refinance several series of outstanding debt with proceeds from next week’s negotiated sale of $394.6 million of intermediate-line revenue bonds.

Trustees of the St. Landry Parish School District last week voted to seek authorization for $10 million of federal qualified school construction bonds from the Louisiana Department of Education.

DALLAS — Kansas will finance the fifth phase of a multi-year reconstruction project at the state capitol in Topeka with proceeds from tomorrow’s competitive offering of $43.6 million of bonds by the Kansas Development Finance Authority.

The Austin Community College District has completed the latest land acquisition financed with proceeds from a 2009 bond sale that provided some $30 million to buy property for future campuses.

Bexar County commissioners will be asked to move up the sale of the fourth and final tranche of debt to finance Bexar County Hospital District’s ongoing expansion project of its facilities in San Antonio.

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson joined other governors last week in support of a proposal to continue a $25 billion program of emergency federal aid to state Medicaid programs.

Property owners in Little Rock can expect repayment soon on a library tax that was levied a year too early by the city.

The Phoenix City Council has adopted a $3.05 billion operating budget for fiscal 2011 after a long process that resolved an estimated $277.3 million revenue shortfall.

DALLAS — Voters in Arkansas will decide in November whether to remove the constitutional limit on the interest rate on public debt and loosen other restrictions on governmental finance.

Lousisiana Commissioner of Administration Angèle Davis will leave her post Aug. 8 after more than two-and-a-half years as Gov. Bobby Jindal’s chief budget officer. The position involves oversight of daily government operations and development of the governor’s executive budget that is presented to lawmakers at the opening of the annual legislative session.

DALLAS — Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy criticized the Legislature and Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday for developing what he called a precariously balanced fiscal 2011 budget that doesn’t come to grips with the state’s tenuous fiscal situation.

Trustees of the Eanes Independent School District are considering general obligation bond packages ranging from $75 million to $99 million that could be set for an election in November.

The Austin City Council voted last week to spend $100,000 to study how to finance an urban rail system that is expected to cost $1.3 billion.

Deb Miller, secretary of the Kansas Department of Transportation, last week said the federal stimulus program has created more than 3,300 transportation-related jobs in the state along with a total monthly payroll of some $4.4 million.

An interim draft report from a special committee looking at Arkansas highway financing includes an option for a 10-year, 0.5% sales tax that would back a bond program.

The War Memorial Stadium Commission last week agreed to sell naming rights for the playing field at the Little Rock stadium to AT&T.