Arizona

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.

DALLAS — Taking advantage of low interest rates in a recovering economy, Mesa, Ariz., will sell about $100 million of refunding debt Thursday while retaining capacity for new-money deals.

Deer Valley Unified School District No. 97 has asked the state of Arizona for a $7 million advance to cover a cash shortfall caused by a delay in anticipated state aid.

DALLAS — Gov. Jan Brewer urged lawmakers to draft a bill to buy back the Arizona capitol for the state's 100th birthday, but the centennial passed on Tuesday with no sign that lawmakers were ready to pay off the $106 million debt.

DALLAS — With Arizona's revenues and economy steadily improving, Moody's Investors Service has revised its outlook on the state's Aa3 issuer credit rating to stable from negative.

Chandler, Ariz.’s sales tax revenues recorded a 14.8% increase in the first four months of fiscal 2012, the most it has recorded since the same period of fiscal 2007.

Glendale, Ariz., the once and future Super Bowl site that staked its future on professional sports, has taken a downgrade as it prepares to refund about $145 million of debt.

DALLAS — Buying back Arizona's capitol complex on the state's 100th anniversary will cost $106 million but will save $47.5 million in finance costs, according to estimates in Gov. Jan Brewer's proposed $8.96 billion budget.

DALLAS — Two years after Arizona mortgaged state buildings to cover operating costs, the Legislature opened Monday with hopes of paying down that debt.

With a new bond-financed spring training facility for the Chicago Cubs in the planning stages, Mesa could keep the venerable Hohokam Stadium operating with the Oakland Athletics as tenant.

El Mirage, Ariz., officials filed a formal response last week to allegations that the city improperly financed a campaign to sway voters in favor of an $8.5 million general obligation bond election.