Texas

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.

DALLAS — The Texas Department of Transportation expects to go to market this spring after gaining approval to issue up to $3 billion of general obligation bonds.

DALLAS — A court case that threatens plans for the first nuclear power project in more than three decades headed for trial after a Texas district judge in San Antonio ruled that the lawsuit by the city’s CPS Energy utility could go forward.

DALLAS — The Dallas City Council on Wednesday approved the sale by a special local government corporation of up to $500 million of special facilities revenue bonds to finance upgrades at Love Field, the city-owned airport located near downtown.

DALLAS — Dallas may come to market in March with a delayed general obligation bond package, backed up by a new $350 million commercial paper program that will provide temporary construction financing for city bond projects.

DALLAS — The Northside Independent School District, the largest in the San Antonio area, is making plans to seek voter approval in May for $535 million of general obligation bonds to keep up with growth.

DALLAS — U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios used a visit on Friday to the site of Dallas’ new bond-financed convention center to highlight the benefits of Build America Bonds in stimulating the North Texas economy in 2009.

DALLAS — In the wake of a favorable Internal Revenue Service ruling in December, the Texas Board of Education last week began the process of reopening and possibly doubling the bond-backing capacity of the Permanent School Fund.

DALLAS — Southwest Securities FSB, the commercial banking subsidiary of SWS Group Inc., has named Larry Kilgore as senior vice president and regional president of the firm’s downtown Fort Worth and Southlake, Tex., banking centers.