Texas

Texas Lieut. Gov. David Dewhurst wants state senators to look everywhere, even under rocks, to find $5 billion in savings and non-tax revenue to help cover a revenue gap of between $15 billion and $23 billion over the next two-year budget cycle.

DALLAS — Texas will draw up to $3.2 billion from its rainy-day fund to close a revenue shortfall in fiscal 2011 under an accord approved Tuesday by Gov. Rick Perry.

DALLAS — As the hub of the largest cotton-growing region in the world, Lubbock, Texas, depends on groundwater from the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast underground reservoir covering parts of eight states in the Great Plains.

Texas will distribute $433.1 million of sales tax collections to local governments this month, an increase of 7.1% from March 2010. Local sales tax allocation for the first three months of the calendar year are up 7.9% from 2010.

Trustees of the North East Independent School District decided last week to postpone an election set for May 14 for a proposed $399.4 million general obligation bond package due to uncertainties over state aid to public education over the next two years.

DALLAS — Despite Republican leaders’ efforts to downplay the record budget shortfall facing Texas, the state’s funding gap is one of the worst in the nation, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

DALLAS — The Houston suburb of Sugar Land will build a 7,500-seat minor league baseball stadium with proceeds from next week’s $30.1 million competitive issue of sales-tax revenue bonds.

DALLAS — Texas Gov. Rick Perry met Monday with Republican lawmakers and urged them to avoid tapping the state’s $9 billion budget stabilization fund to help close a $27 billion revenue gap over the next two fiscal years.

DALLAS — Texas transportation planning has shifted to the slow lane as state legislators seek record spending cuts and prepare to rewrite the law governing the Texas Transportation Commission.

DALLAS — Texas will not be able to resolve a $4.3 billion revenue shortfall by the end of fiscal 2011 through budget cuts, state Comptroller Susan Combs warned legislators Thursday.

DALLAS — Voters in the Dallas suburb of Frisco will have an opportunity in May to reconsider a September 2002 vote authorizing $19 million of general obligation bonds for a regional arts center.

DALLAS — Voters in San Antonio’s North East Independent School District will decide on almost $400 million of general obligation bonds as trustees opted to put the larger of two proposed debt requests on the May ballot.

Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell said last week that voters will be asked in November 2012 to decide on a bond package that would fund an urban rail system, roads, bike paths, parks, and libraries.

DALLAS — A new section of the 180-mile, $6 billion toll road that loops around the outer Houston metro area known as the Grand Parkway could break ground this fall after winning approval from the Texas Transportation Commission.

DALLAS — A wave of financial emergencies brought on by deep cuts in Texas education spending will bring additional credit scrutiny to school districts but not necessarily downgrades, Standard & Poor's analysts said Tuesday.

DALLAS — As Texas urban transit authorities continue to expand light-rail lines to ease congestion, they are also investing heavily in their workhorse buses, combining local and federal funds to develop cleaner, more efficient systems.

DALLAS — The North Texas Tollway Authority’s decision in 2007 to pay $3.2 billion for the right to build the Sam Rayburn Tollway was a mistake that has limited its ability to take on new projects, according to NTTA chairman Victor ­Vandergriff.

DALLAS — The Texas A&M University System will offer one of the largest Southwest deals Tuesday in a lean municipal market.

AUSTIN — Texas faces a severe budget shortfall of $15-$27 billion over the next two years, but a deeper threat to its AA-plus credit rating is a structural imbalance in how it finances schools, according to Standard & Poor’s analyst Horacio Aldrete-Sanchez.

DALLAS — Texas schools are waiting to see how deeply the Legislature cuts their funding before seeking more bond authority from taxpayers, finance experts say.