Texas

DALLAS — As a young agency with a senior debt rating at the lowest rung of investment grade, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority needed an innovative approach to finance its latest project known as the 183A Toll Road Extension.

DALLAS — Houston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority said it plans to issue $2.6 billion of bonds to finance five new light-rail lines, even though voters only authorized a quarter of that amount.

DALLAS — After years of battling opposition to a $1.8 billion toll road proposal on the Trinity River near downtown, ­Dallas is facing another financial challenge to the star-crossed project.

DALLAS — Texas lawmakers will be facing a revenue shortfall of at least $11 billion when they develop the next two-year budget in 2011.

DALLAS — Moody’s Investors Service has shifted its outlook on Dallas’ Aa1 rating to negative based on the city’s weakening economy and narrowing budget reserves, the agency said.

DALLAS — CPS Energy of San Antonio tomorrow will price up to $380 million of Build America Bonds for capital projects, including a new coal plant that is nearing completion.

DALLAS — UBS Securities will repurchase up to $200 million of auction-rate securities from investors across the country not covered in investment bank’s initial agreement with state and federal regulators, according to the Texas State Securities Board.

DALLAS — Dallas will take as much as $330 million of general obligation debt to market next week after the City Council voted Wednesday to increase the refunding component to a maximum of $170 million.

DALLAS — Anti-Washington fervor in Tuesday’s primary helped Texas Gov. Rick Perry win the GOP nomination to run for an unprecedented third term and set the stage for the once-powerful Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to retire from politics.

DALLAS — San Antonio yesterday priced nearly $156 million of tax-exempt refunding bonds as the city, Texas’ second largest, seeks to keep up with growth in a weakening economy.

DALLAS — In a lean budget environment, the University of Texas Board of Regents will hit the market with $700 million of triple-A rated revenue bonds this month, starting today with a $330 million issue.

DALLAS — With some misgivings, the North Texas Tollway Authority has agreed to add the $1.4 billion State Highway 161 toll road to its rapidly expanding system.

DALLAS — Voters in the Dallas suburb of Richardson will decide on a four-part, $66 million general obligation bond proposal on May 8.

DALLAS — San Antonio will play a dramatically smaller role in financing the $13 billion expansion of the South Texas Project nuclear plant under a settlement submitted for approval to the city’s utility board yesterday.

DALLAS — One of the largest public-private partnerships in Texas involves transmission of electricity produced by wind.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Tex., has introduced legislation that would authorize the use of Build America Bonds for the purchase or construction of land, buildings or other facilities located near a convention center.

DALLAS — JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay Texas $3.2 million for failing to warn customers about the risks of auction-rate securities, among the largest fines since the ARS market collapsed in early 2008.

AUSTIN — The $1.3 billion effort to replace Dallas County’s public hospital was able to get off the ground with the use of Build America Bonds, which reduced the debt service burden on county taxpayers.

AUSTIN — Not yet a year after Build America Bonds began to lift municipal debt issuance to its second-highest volume on record, issuers and brokers are finding that they must commit more time to educating potential investors who make up an increasingly diverse base of buyers, experts told The Bond Buyer’s Texas Public Finance Conference yesterday.

DALLAS — With a statewide moratorium on new private toll projects still in place after more than two years, the Texas Transportation Commission is planning a bypass around that financial barrier to leverage existing funds.