Texas

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.

The medical community in Austin, Tex., is divided over a ballot proposition that would support a University of Texas medical school in the state capital.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit has rescheduled its $128.3 million revenue bond pricing for Nov. 8 after the deal was postponed by the storm that shut down the financial markets in New York.

The $63.6 billion of outstanding debt from school districts in Texas at the end of fiscal 2011 accounts for a third of total outstanding local debt, Comptroller Susan Combs said.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit will close out its commercial paper program with Bank of America by issuing $128.3 million of sales-tax revenue bonds in a deal postponed due to the storm on the East Coast.

Trustees of Dallas Independent School District voted last week to move to negotiated sales for future bond issues in a shift from the district's policy of competitive issues.