Texas

DALLAS — The Austin Community College District plans to price $44.4 million of lease-revenue bonds to build its first campus in suburban Hays County after a Texas Supreme Court victory cleared a path to the market.

DALLAS — Private developers have pledged $80 million to help finance a $250 million entertainment center adjoining the Irving convention center in Texas, but city officials doubt that the pledge is firm enough to earn a credit rating.

DALLAS — El Paso County, Texas, commissioners Monday approved the development of a five-year capital improvement program to identify and finance needed long-term assets.

DALLAS — Chicago-based Mesirow Financial is opening a Houston public finance office that will be headed by former Citigroup Global Markets executive Anderson Bynam, according to the company.

DALLAS — In an effort to acquire cleaner energy sources, San Antonio is using $521 million of taxable revenue bonds to buy an 800-megawatt natural gas power plant for city-owned CPS Energy.

Trustees of the Tidehaven Independent School District last week voted to put a $50.5 million general obligation bond package to voters May 10.

Property values in Harris County, Texas, are expected to rise 4.54% in 2012 based on preliminary figures from the Harris County Appraisals District.

DALLAS — Moody's Investors Service has declared the acquisition of the Bexar Metropolitan Water District by the larger San Antonio Water System a credit positive event for both utilities.

DALLAS — As Texas' fastest-growing county, Williamson County, north of Austin, has seen its debt rise rapidly to keep up with demand for roads, parks and services.

DALLAS — As springtime rains replenish depleted reservoirs, the Texas Water Development Board is going back to the well for $137 million of general obligation bonds to finance loans to local utilities.

Texas sales tax revenues exceeded $2 billion again in February, Comptroller Susan Combs said last week.

DALLAS — The Texas Department of Transportation plans on leveraging up to $2 billion more than expected over the next two years after reassessing federal revenues and construction costs, officials said.

DALLAS — Dallas may finance a $300 million drainage project with revenue bonds rather than with proceeds from a $500 million general obligation package expected to go to voters in November.

DALLAS — Voters in North Richland Hills, Texas, will decide May 12 on $48 million of general obligation bonds to build a new municipal complex in the Fort Worth suburb.

DALLAS — The triple-A rated Dallas suburb of Irving will spend $200,000 to obtain separate ratings on a potential bond issue for a $210 million entertainment center backed by public and private funds.

DALLAS — As George Bush Intercontinental Airport's $1 billion redevelopment gets under way, Houston will issue $520 million of refunding bonds for the facility Tuesday, the largest deal of the year so far in Texas.

Trustees of the New Caney Independent School District in Texas have set a May 12 election for a $97.5 million general obligation bond proposal.

DALLAS — A panel of 22 Texas lawmakers has been formed to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's school finance system in the wake of five recent lawsuits challenging how Texas funds local school districts.

Austin is refunding the first debt it issued for an ambitious flood-protection project that is finally underway along downtown's Waller Creek, after decades of planning.

Attorneys representing a group of Texas parents filed the fifth in a series of lawsuits Friday seeking to have the state's public education system declared unconstitutional.