Karen is a senior reporter covering the Southwest. She has covered the municipal bond market for more than 30 years at The Bond Buyer and Reuters. Prior to that she wrote about futures and options markets for magazines and was an award-winning reporter for a suburban Chicago newspaper chain.
-
The rating agency cited the university's structural budget imbalance and management turnover among factors that drove the outlook revision to negative from stable.
March 5 -
State lawmakers last week passed bills including stadium financing to boost efforts to lure professional baseball and hockey teams to Salt Lake City.
March 5 -
Escalating costs led University of Utah Health to seek a doubling of its bonding authority from the state legislature for a medical campus project.
February 29 -
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond released opinions that disallowed the holding of multiple government roles by Turnpike Authority Executive Director Tim Gatz and upheld the constitutionality of a 2023 law that altered the turnpike's governance structure.
February 29 -
The elimination of the 4.5% tax will cost the state about $400 million annually.
February 27 -
Texas bond volume climbed 22.5% to lead the nation in a year when issuance in the eight-state Southwest region increased by only 0.6%.
February 20 -
Austin Transit Partnership, which was created by the city and its mass transit agency to develop and finance Project Connect, approved an initial bond sale of up to $150 million.
February 16 -
The upcoming fiscal 2025 budget will take "some first steps" to address a structural gap of about $158 million, Melissa Dubowski said.
February 14 -
The state faces slower job growth after gains in the previous three years outpaced the nation, according to the Dallas Federal Reserve's Texas economic outlook.
February 13 -
Oklahoma is on a roll, notching its third positive rating outlook since July with the latest move coming from Fitch Ratings.
February 12 -
Children's Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center are teaming up to finance and build a pediatric health campus that includes a hospital.
February 8 -
Colorado's sole public safety net healthcare provider faces rising uncompensated care costs, driven in part by treating thousands of uninsured migrants coming from the southern border.
February 7 -
Proponents of the proposed bond-financed 86-mile railway in northeast Utah are hoping Congress or a U.S. Supreme Court review can advance the project.
February 6 -
The Texas city's project joins other efforts in Southwest states to find new water sources as supplies dwindle due to persistent drought conditions.
February 6 -
Bonds sold through conduit debt issuer Arizona Industrial Development Authority are involved in Chapter 11 bankruptcies filed over the last year.
January 31 -
With its cash balance eroding due to a budget imbalance, the university, under the watchful eye of Arizona's governor, will undergo system-wide changes.
January 31 -
The push for bills to punish companies, including municipal bond underwriters, for their fossil fuel or firearm policies continues in Arizona and Oklahoma.
January 30 -
Barclays joins UBS and Citigroup in being prohibited from underwriting state and local government bonds under Texas laws aimed at protecting the fossil fuel and firearms industries.
January 26 -
The chamber is once again refusing Gov. Kevin Stitt's call to pass an income tax cut during a special session.
January 25 -
Mayor John Whitmire expressed confidence in Melissa Dubowski's ability to guide the city through its financial challenges.
January 24
