Texas

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.

DALLAS — Seeking to take advantage of historically low interest rates on the long and short end of the market, Houston brought $371 million of refunding bonds to market Tuesday through a syndicate led by Jefferies & Co.

El Paso County, Texas, commissioners last week approved George K. Baum & Co. as the replacement for Coastal Securities as the county’s financial advisor in a 3-to-2 vote.

DALLAS — As its largest tenant faces an uncertain future, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport plans a mix of refunding and new-money debt for this week and late May.

DALLAS — A general obligation bond program going to El Paso, Texas, voters in November grew from an initial $200 million to a new total of up to $835 million at a special City Council meeting Wednesday.

DALLAS — Dallas can ask voters for $600 million of new general obligation debt in November without raising the tax rate under revised projections outlined Wednesday to the City Council.

DALLAS — Texas Gov. Rick Perry called Monday for a state constitutional amendment to link and limit increases in state spending to population growth plus inflation.

DALLAS — The Houston Airport System's plan for a $100 million expansion of William P. Hobby Airport hit some turbulence this week as City Council members expressed opposition to a study backing the move on behalf of Southwest Airlines.