Texas

Local voters across Texas will face a light menu of bond proposals in May after school districts, cities and counties agreed to bring $4.8 billion to the ballot.

A $3.4 billion project designed to deliver water to the San Antonio Water System is facing delays after Abengoa S.A., the company hired to build the 142-mile pipeline, filed for bankruptcy.

Odessa, Texas took a one-notch downgrade, following in the footsteps of its Permian Basin sister city of Midland.

California is the least prepared to weather a recession of the four most populous states, according to a Moody’s Investors Service fiscal stress test.

Citing “persistent and large operating losses,” Standard & Poor’s downgraded Catholic Health Initiatives one notch to A-minus and retained a negative outlook.

The West Texas oil capital of Midland, Texas, saw its Moody’s rating cut to Aa2 from Aa1 with an outlook that remains negative.

An international consortium of investors and project developers plans to issue $272 million of private activity bonds to build toll lanes in one of the Houston area’s most congested corridors.

Three years after entering the Texas market, UMB Bank is expanding its investment banking division with 11 hires from other firms, led by Victor Pucciarelli, former senior vice president for Hilltop Securities.

The Securities Exchange Commission has charged Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton with securities fraud in a case involving a Texas-based technology company. Paxton was already under indictment in Texas for acting as an unregistered financial advisor.

The Conroe Industrial Development Corporation in Texas has paid a penalty and agreed to redeem bonds under the Internal Revenue Service’s voluntary closing agreement program (VCAP) to settle a tax violation relating to bonds it issued in 2008 and refunded in 2012.

UMB Bank N.A., the bond trustee for Texas Pellets, accelerated the outstanding debt on $186.5 million of bonds due to a default at the company owned by German Pellets, which filed for insolvency in February.

As it delivers growing numbers of commuters through Houston’s congested car culture, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County will make a side trip to the municipal market with $136 million of refunding bonds.

After four months of decline, local sales tax revenues increased 2.6% in March compared to the same month last year, state Comptroller Glenn Hegar said.

The University of Texas System will seek savings with a $134 million refunding of revenue bonds.

A federal judge approved a $20 billion settlement with BP to resolve litigation brought by five Gulf coast states over the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Texas sales tax revenues grew 2.1% in March after five months of declines, Comptroller Glenn Hegar reported.

The first inventory of Texas toll roads is a starting point for future discussions about how to reduce tolling, said an anti-toll Texas lawmaker.

Citing strong enrollment growth and improving financial trends, Standard & Poor’s upgraded Texas Tech University System to AA-plus.

Baylor Scott & White Health, the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in Texas, will issue $536 million of taxable and $382 million of tax-exempt bonds.

The Houston Independent School District returns to the muni market with $683 million of general obligation bonds that carry nearly perfect ratings.