Texas

DALLAS — Development of the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas-producing region of South Texas will have a $20 billion impact that is likely to boost credits for cities, counties and school districts in the area, researchers say.

DALLAS — Austin taxpayers would be asked to back $275 million of general obligation bonds to get an urban rail system started under a proposal before the City Council.

San Antonio aims to get a jump on a busy week in the municipal bond market with a $650 million refunding for the city's CPS Energy Utility.

DALLAS — Austin risks a downgrade on its electric utility bonds if it fails to raise rates high enough, its financial advisor told the City Council last week.

DALLAS — An Austin bond committee that has recommended $575 million for the November ballot is providing an alternative that will leave room for an urban rail project long championed by re-elected Mayor Lee Leffingwell.

DALLAS — The Houston Independent School District is refunding $186.5 million of variable-rate debt in one of the largest school bond issues in Texas this year.

DALLAS — When financial markets were collapsing in 2008, the North Texas Tollway Authority faced the challenge of raising $3.2 billion to pay for its most ambitious project, the State Highway 121 toll road connecting the far northern Dallas suburbs to the NTTA's existing system.

El Paso must amend its plan to present voters in November with a single ballot question for a general obligation bond deal worth as much as $835 million, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said last week.

Texas collected $2.07 billion from sales tax in April, up 11% from the same period in 2011.

DALLAS — Voters across Texas approved most of the $1.8 billion of bond issues on local ballots Saturday, led by San Antonio's $596 million offering.

DALLAS — El Paso County, Texas, will dedicate $27 million of proceeds from $110 million of certificates of obligation to complete a bridge project across the Rio Grande into Mexico.

DALLAS — Two major airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, are trying to sway public opinion in a showdown between two Houston airports that resembles a recent fight in Dallas.

DALLAS — Bearing a healthy prognosis from rating agencies, Children's Medical Center of Dallas will look for interest-rate savings with a $164.5 million refunding.

A Texas state court judge in Travis County last week reversed a decision that could have cost state and local governments millions of dollars each year in lost sales tax revenues.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents last week said the system would contribute $25 million a year to operations of a medical school in Austin if locals provide $35 million a year.

Kathryn V. Garner has joined Haynes and Boone LLP as a partner and public finance specialist.

DALLAS — The largest business association in Texas on Wednesday intervened in one of a cluster of lawsuits seeking to overturn the state’s public school funding system.

DALLAS — Fulbright & Jaworski public finance attorney Adrian Patrick Patterson has moved to Andrews Kurth as partner in the Houston office, the law firm said.

The citizens bond committee reviewing projects for inclusion in Austin’s general obligation bond election has cut the total proposal to $659 million from a potential $1.5 billion.

A total of $52.7 billion of Texas public school district general obligation bonds were covered by the Permanent School Fund bond guarantee program as of Aug. 31, 2011. Unused capacity totaled $18 billion.