Texas

DALLAS - Some board members of the North Texas Tollway Authority appear to have conflicts of interest involving business ties or family members, but the agency lacks clear policies regulating the conflicts, according to a consultant's review.

DALLAS - With its first financing for a project in Fort Worth, the North Texas Tollway Authority is expanding its role as the major regional road builder as it faces new scrutiny over its business practices.

September sales tax revenues of $1.76 billion mark the 18th consecutive month that Texas collections have risen, according to Comptroller Susan Combs.

DALLAS - Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office rejected doubling the salary of the Texas Department of Transportation's executive director but did authorize a salary above a statutory maximum of $292,500, officials said.

DALLAS - Phil Wilson, a former aide to Gov. Rick Perry recently named executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, should be paid twice as much as his predecessor, according to the new chairman of the board that oversees TxDOT.

DALLAS - A coalition of school districts and taxpayers has filed suit in a Travis County state court to overturn Texas' system for funding public education.

DALLAS - Standard & Poor's on Tuesday lowered $35.8 million of outstanding Texas Midwest Public Facility Corp.'s 2009 revenue bonds to D from CC after the issuer defaulted on debt service for its vacant private jail in Jones County.

DALLAS — A lengthy drought is putting a stranglehold on Texas water utilities that can only be alleviated by significant rainfall this winter, Fitch Ratings said in a new report assessing the economic impact of months of no or below-average rainfall in the Lone Star State.

The North Texas Tollway Authority last week approved the sale of bonds for Chisholm Trail Parkway in Fort Worth under the agency’s special projects system.

Gillespie County in central Texas has hired an Austin construction management firm to help it plan for an election in November 2012 for $10.5 million of general obligation bonds to build a new jail in Fredericksburg.

DALLAS - As Austin begins mapping its next bond program, the triple-A Texas capital is taking advantage of low interest rates with a $93 million refunding this week.

DALLAS - Tax revenues that have rebounded to pre-recession levels will bring Texas' rainy-day fund to $7 billion by the time lawmakers begin development of the next two-year state budget.

DALLAS - Harris County, Texas, is seeking $484,000 through mediation with Morgan Stanley for alleged overpayment of fees after reaching a $659,000 settlement with UBS, officials said.

DALLAS - The Tomball Hospital Authority near Houston has called or defeased its $111.4 million of tax-exempt bond debt after the sale of the Tomball Regional Medical Center to for-profit Community Health Systems.

DALLAS - With municipal bond volume running about as low as the water levels in its reservoirs, Texas' Lower Colorado River Authority will supply a parched market with $595 million of refunding revenue bonds this week.

Trustees of Arlington Independent School District last week authorized the refunding of $19.5 million of outstanding debt from a 2003 bond issue.

An updated report issued last week by the Texas Water Development Board said it will cost $53 billion over the next 50 years to build the new reservoirs, pipelines, treatment plants and other water infrastructure needed to keep the state from drying up.

New facilities and upgrades financed by the Forth Worth Independent School District’s $593.6 million bond program will benefit students for many years, superintendent Walter Dansby said last week.

DALLAS - Two former aides to Texas Gov. Rick Perry now hold top positions at the Texas Department of Transportation after former energy lobbyist and secretary of state Phil Wilson was named the agency's executive director.

DALLAS - Texas' chief revenue estimator told lawmakers Wednesday that revenues probably will not climb much this fiscal year, dimming hopes of avoiding another budget shortfall in two years.