Arizona

Tempe, Ariz.’s property tax rate could go up to $2.16 per $100 of assessed valuation from the current $1.79 per $100 under a plan being considered later this week by the City Council.

A preliminary $2.3 billion budget for fiscal 2013 approved by Maricopa County, Ariz., supervisors last week reflects a revenue drop due to lower property tax valuations.

The Glendale, Ariz., City Council will consider a preliminary fiscal 2013 budget today that includes a $17 million payment for operations of the city-owned Jobing.com Arena.

A $1 billion budget for fiscal 2013 proposed by Phoenix City Manager David Cavazos received preliminary approval last week from the City Council.

Maricopa County supervisors approved a debt refinancing plan last week that provides funding for improvements to baseball spring training facilities in the Phoenix area.

DALLAS — The Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Ariz., faces another potential hit to its professional sports fortunes as the Arizona Cardinals and the Arizona Sports Tourism Authority are demanding $66.7 million to compensate for stadium parking spaces lost to an outlet mall.

DALLAS — As neighboring states seek ways to reduce prison costs, Arizona plans to continue to build public and private cells under an $8.5 billion budget headed for final legislative approval in Phoenix.

DALLAS — Aiming to recover some ground lost to the recession, the Arizona Sports Tourism Authority will shed variable-rate bonds and seek savings with a $177 million refunding of debt issued to finance the University of Phoenix Stadium.

The Glendale, Ariz., City Council is considering options for raising the city’s sales tax and property tax rates to cover an anticipated $35 million revenue shortfall in fiscal 2013.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is looking into the tax compliance of $195 million of lease revenue bonds issued by the Pima County, Ariz., Industrial Development Authority in 2008 for a nonprofit borrower that used them to finance the development of a detention facility for Clark County, Nev.

Trustees of Arizona's Western Maricopa Education Center Joint Technological Education School District No. 402 will consider asking voters in November for a property tax increase to support up to $85 million of general obligation bonds.

Phoenix’s newest five-year capital spending program calls for expenditures of $2.8 billion through 2017, down from $3.2 billion in the 2011-2016 span.

DALLAS - Financial accounting problems brought Surprise, Ariz., its second downgrade in a week, as Fitch Ratings lowered the Phoenix suburb's implied unlimited tax general obligation rating to A-plus from AA-minus.

DALLAS — Arizona State University will use $230 million of revenue bond proceeds for a variety of projects at its Tempe and satellite campuses.

DALLAS — Arizona's Salt River Project Agricultural and Power District forecasts a 20% increase in debt to $5.3 billion by the end of fiscal 2016, even after reducing its capital program.

Standard & Poor’s last week lowered Surprise, Ariz.’s issuer rating to A from AA and assigned a negative outlook.

DALLAS — The Arizona Board of Regents on Tuesday priced $123 million of bonds for the University of Arizona in one of the largest deals of the year from the state.

An independent audit of the Phoenix suburb of Surprise found $16 million of accounting errors that will erase the city’s meager rainy-day fund and blow a $3 million hole in the fiscal 2012 budget.

Phoenix may end fiscal 2013 with a multimillion dollar surplus in a turnaround after posting the city’s biggest deficit ever in 2010.

DALLAS — Two Arizona cities will have to find revenue to cover Major League Baseball's spring training facilities improvements because Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority subsidies will fall $165 million short of expectations, officials say.