Texas

Texas's Rainy Day Fund could provide $2 billion of initial financing for a statewide program of water supply infrastructure revolving debt.

Two years after massive spending cuts to deal with a slumping economy, Texas lawmakers are considering measures to ease the impact as they prepare to convene for their 2013 session next week.

The inland Port of San Antonio expects to issue $24 million of bonds after bypassing the debt market in 2012, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The Houston Community College District will issue $300 million of general obligation bonds two months after voters approved $425 million of debt to expand the system.

With expansion of an international toll bridge in Eagle Pass, Texas, expected to begin in April, Moody's Investors Service affirmed its Baa1 rating on the system's senior lien revenue bonds.

Women in Public Finance will honor three professionals next month in Chicago at the national organization's 7th annual founders' awards.

The YMCA of Greater Houston is no longer under threat of downgrade to junk status from Moody's Investors Service as the nonprofit prepares to restructure its $196 million of outstanding debt.

The El Paso City Council created a development district that will issue $50.4 million of bonds in early 2013 for construction of a minor league baseball stadium in downtown.

The Texas State Comptroller’s Office has approved a payment of $29.3 million from the Major Events Trust Fund to organizers of November’s Formula One car race near Austin.

Bexar County called on Frost Bank of San Antonio to underwrite $128 million of tax-exempt debt in a deal designed to enhance the city's convention and tourism venues while raising the hometown bank's profile in the muni bond industry.

Texas sales tax collections in the first quarter of fiscal 2013 were up 11% from the same period of fiscal 2012.

Three Texas state legislators are urging the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to adopt rules that would allow Texas' public charter schools access to the Permanent School Fund bond obligations.

The $3 billion bond-funded Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas faces a criminal investigation over an $11 million grant to a company backed by a major campaign contributor to Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, according to the Travis County District Attorney's public integrity unit.

A $3 billion bond-funded cancer research program that granted funds to a firm backed by donors to Texas Gov. Rick Perry is under investigation by the state attorney general's office, and the executive director of the program has resigned.

El Paso City Council last week narrowly defeated, by 5-3, a plan to include on the May 2013 municipal election ballot a proposal to stop the demolition of El Paso City Hall to make way for a bond-financed minor league baseball stadium.

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.