Richard Williamson

Oklahoma’s pension fund investments are among the nation’s worst performers, with some turning negative in the last fiscal year, according to state Treasurer Ken Miller.

With its fiscal year completed Aug. 31, Texas came up 1.3% short of revenue estimates used to budget for fiscal year 2016, state Comptroller Glenn Hegar reported.

Oklahoma Treasurer Ken Miller sees no immediate signs of a turnaround as state revenues fall for the 18th straight month in August.

Bonds for three private prisons in Texas suffered downgrades well below junk-bond status from S&P Global Ratings after the U.S. Department of Justice announced plans to discontinue their use.

Kansas revenues continued to fall below forecast in August, running 2.3% or $10.2 million short of expectations.

The Texas Water Development Board expects the market to quickly absorb its $711 million of top-rated revenue bonds.

Caught up in a dispute between county tax appraisers and the bankrupt owner of a nuclear power plant, a tax-supported hospital district in Glen Rose, Texas, has defaulted on its debt payment, according to a disclosure notice.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins’ advocacy for two Dallas-based bond firms in a $168 million issue led to accusations of interference in a process designed to avoid political influence.

After approving a plan to finance $70 billion of projects over the next decade, the Texas Transportation Commission will issue $712 million of bonds in September to take care of current needs.

Issuers in the Southwest sold $42.85 billion of bonds in the first half of 2016, only 0.6% behind the record pace of the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The federal Bureau of Prisons' phase out of private prisons has only a small effect on the municipal bond-financed private lockup sector, leaving bond-financed immigration detention centers untouched.

Eight years after the housing market collapse, the senior housing sector is growing with the help of near record-low interest rates that have prompted a rush to market.

Lenders will own the private operator of State Highway 130 near Austin under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan filed last week.

Despite a two-year slump in the energy industry, local sales tax revenue for Texas cities, counties and other jurisdictions rose 1.2% in July, state Comptroller Glenn Hegar reported.

Experts in Kansas government say the defeats of many of Gov. Sam Brownback’s allies in the GOP primary showed that moderates have had enough of his policies of cutting taxes while reducing spending on state services.

Oklahoma’s continuing downturn in revenue has exceeded the slump that followed the global financial crisis of 2008, state Treasurer Ken Miller said.

After ending the 2016 fiscal year with a surplus, Arkansas began the new fiscal year with revenues running 1.7% below projections, officials said.

With energy in the doldrums, Texas saw its sales tax revenue fall 1.5% in July compared to the same month last year, said state Comptroller Glenn Hegar.

Kansas started its fiscal year $12.8 million below the revenue forecast for July, continuing a trend that factored into a credit downgrade from Standard & Poor's.

The University of Texas System will bring its triple-A credit to two bond deals worth a combined $609 million.