Texas

Large state pension plans in Texas are financially stable but local government retirement programs would benefit from more transparency, Comptroller Susan Combs said Tuesday.

Voters in property-rich school districts are extremely reluctant to approve tax increases when half of the additional revenue will flow to poorer-districts, a pollster testified last week in a suit challenging the constitutionality of the current state funding system.

The Texas Transportation Commission is pricing its largest general obligation bond issue of the year Tuesday, with $839.3 million of tax-exempt debt selling through negotiation and $100 million of taxable bonds offered competitively.

Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said a state water infrastructure bond bank financed with $1 billion from the $8 billion Rainy Day Fund could help meet demand from a growing population.

The South Texas Higher Education Authority is the latest student loan bond issuer to enter into a voluntary closing agreement program with the Internal Revenue Service.

Williamson County, Texas commissioners last week authorized the use $36 million remaining from a $228 million road bond program approved by voters in 2006.

Round Rock, Texas City Council approved a $14.5 million construction contract last week for an indoor sports venue being financed in part with $7.8 million of revenue bonds

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is fending off allegations that the $3 billion cancer research bond program that won statewide voter approval in 2007 is funding projects for his campaign contributors.

A recent telephone survey of voters in the Judson Independent School District found a majority in the San Antonio school district would support a May 2013 bond request to build two schools.

Texas collected more than $2 billion from state and local sales taxes in October as revenues rose 8.2% from October 2011.

A Texas legislative board adopted a growth plan to limit increases in state spending from non-dedicated revenue.

Faced with a sewer system that San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro says is "falling apart," the San Antonio Water System is proposing a rate increase of nearly 10% to help finance maintenance.

The University of Texas plans to quickly form a steering committee, hire an inaugural dean and recruit faculty members for a new medical school approved by Austin voters in last week's election.

Texas lawmakers filed bills Monday for their 2013 session to boost state revenues as the state struggles to cope with a looming Medicaid shortfall and restore school funding.

The Texas Transportation Commission will refund $840.9 million of Central Texas Turnpike System debt; the system was recently lifted into the A category by Standard & Poor’s.

Oral arguments on a suit seeking to overturn last week’s approval of a tax increase for Travis County, Texas’s hospital district are set for this week before U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel.

Voters in Corpus Christi, Texas favored seven of the eight bond proposals on the ballot last week. Total authorization of the seven successful requests will finance almost $88 million of projects.

Neighboring Midland Independent School District and Ector County Independent School District in west Texas won approval last week for the largest GO bond requests in their histories.

The biggest threat to the public infrastructure in Texas is a lack of sustainable funding, the Texas Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers said in its 2012 report card.

Webb County, Tex., which includes Laredo on the Texas-Mexico border, earned a Standard & Poor's upgrade to AA from AA-minus in advance of a $21.9 million issue of certificates of obligation.