Arizona

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.

Arizona’s State Transportation Board has adopted a blueprint outlining the projects needed over the next 25 years to keep pace with the state’s growing population.

Final results last week from the Maricopa County Elections Department show that voters Nov. 8 narrowly approved a $41 million capital override request by Paradise Valley Unified School District.

El Mirage’s $8.5 million bond request was approved by a three-vote margin on Nov. 8 after early returns showed the measure failing by 19 votes.

The Maricopa County supervisors voted last week to again ask the Arizona Legislature to halt its practice of levying a mandated contribution on counties to help balance the state budget.

Trustees of the Scottsdale Cultural Council last week heard plans for a $10.5 million bond proposal that the art group plans to take to the Scottsdale City Council in March 2012.

DALLAS - Falling incarceration rates could interfere with Arizona's plan to issue debt to finance a for-profit private prison, according to reports.

DALLAS - Arizona State University will have a new way to issue debt with a stadium district authorized by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Phoenix.

The Maricopa County School District No. 69 is asking voters next week to approve $203 million of general obligation bonds to renovate and maintain its 45 schools.

A recent downgrade of some Surprise, Ariz., municipal bonds provided ammunition for mayoral candidate Sharon Wolcott’s campaign against incumbent Lyn Truitt in the election on Nov. 8.

DALLAS - Standard & Poor's on Wednesday lowered its rating on the Arizona Transportation Board's subordinate-lien highway revenue bonds to AA-plus from AAA with a negative outlook.

DALLAS - The Arizona Transportation Board is scheduled to sell $164.5 million of excise tax revenue bonds in a competitive deal Tuesday.

Arizona school districts may not use leftover bond money on projects that were not specifically approved by voters, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge has ruled.

DALLAS - Arizona's Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District achieved savings of about $58 million or 12.3% on a $441.5 million refunding that is the first and largest issue of the year from the electric utility provider, officials said.

DALLAS - Lenders have repossessed a 33-acre retail and entertainment complex adjoining Glendale, Ariz.'s National Hockey League arena after a failed foreclosure auction.

DALLAS - The Arizona Transportation Board has switched lanes to adjust to market conditions, planning to substitute a senior-lien excise tax revenue bond issue for a subordinate-lien highway revenue bond sale that had been expected this week.

Midwestern University will expand its facilities in Glendale, Ariz., and Downers Grove, Ill., with proceeds from $50 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds approved last week by the Glendale city council.

DALLAS - Property tax collections in Arizona's largest county will fall for the third straight year as real estate values continue to plunge, officials said.

A law that allows Arizona school districts to spend bond proceeds on projects not on the original program approved by voters was challenged as unconstitutional last week in oral arguments in a Maricopa County Superior Court.