Arkansas

DALLAS — The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees gave preliminary approval to $141 million of revenue bonds Friday that will finance improvements to the main campus in Fayetteville.

DALLAS — Arkansas House Speaker Robert Moore opened the 86th General Assembly by asking lawmakers Monday to adequately fund a proposed road plan that could involve more than $2 billion of bonds.

Little Rock Wastewater will be insolvent by mid-2012 unless the Sanitary Sewer Commission raises rates or cuts spending, according to a new financial plan presented to the commission last week.

The Pulaski County Special School District could build as many as five new schools and renovate two others with proceeds from a proposed $181 million bond program outlined last week by superintendent Charles Hopson.

Citing better-than-expected revenues during the first five months of fiscal 2011, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe last week ordered the Department of Finance and Administration to reinstate cost-of-living adjustments, career-service recognitions, and merit pay for state employees.

DALLAS — The final report on highway financing in Arkansas, delivered to state leaders on Wednesday, recommends asking voters to approve higher taxes to support $1.8 billion of revenue bonds for transportation projects.

DALLAS — Recommendations on how to finance improvements to Arkansas highways and local roads include $1.8 billion of revenue bonds supported by a dedicated 0.5% state sales tax.

DALLAS — Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe Wednesday unveiled a proposed fiscal 2012 general fund budget of $4.59 billion that is minimally higher than the current spending plan.

DALLAS — An Arkansas district judge gave the state the go-ahead Tuesday to tabulate the votes on a measure lifting the constitutional ceiling on public debt interest rates.

When the doors of Crews & Associates Inc. first opened in 1979, seven founding partners sat in a small office in Little Rock, Ark., discussing how they could drum up municipal bond business and make a name for the company locally.

DALLAS — A lawsuit filed in Arkansas state court last week could remove from the November ballot a constitutional amendment to eliminate restrictions on the interest rate carried by tax-exempt bonds issued in the state.

Arkansas' joint adequacy evaluation oversight subcommittee has proposed a 2.5% increase in state funding for local school districts in fiscal 2012 and another 2.9% hike in fiscal 2013.

Voters in Saline County last week overwhelmingly defeated a proposal for a 1% sales tax to support $55 million of bonds for a new county fair complex.

DALLAS — Volume of issuance in the Southwest fell 4.9% in the first half of the year, despite support from the Build America Bond program and the return of the Permanent School Fund bond guarantee in Texas.

DALLAS — Voters in Arkansas will decide in November whether to remove the constitutional limit on the interest rate on public debt and loosen other restrictions on governmental finance.

DALLAS — Arkansas will refund three series of highway bonds with this week’s negotiated sale of $256.97 million of five-year general obligation bonds that will lower debt-service costs in fiscal 2011 by an anticipated $11 million.

DALLAS — The Arkansas General Assembly wrapped up its first-ever budget session on Wednesday as both chambers passed identical fiscal 2011 budget bills totaling $4.48 billion.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe last week shot down a proposal to shift a portion of sales tax revenues to highway projects before a transportation financing committee had a chance to suggest the move.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled last week in a unanimous decision that Pulaski County levied a 20-year, one-mill increase in the property tax rate a year earlier than it should have.

The University of Arkansas will begin a multi-year effort to renovate facilities at its main campus in Fayetteville with most of the proceeds from this week's negotiated sale of $51.9 million of facility revenue bonds by the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees.