Texas

DALLAS — The Port of Houston Authority of Harris County will take advantage of its highly rated credit tomorrow by offering $327 million of refunding bonds, a deal that comes amid major expansion plans for one of the nation’s busiest cargo and petro-chemical facilities.

DALLAS — The Lower Colorado River Authority, one of the largest wholesale energy providers in Texas, aims to take advantage of favorable interest rates with a $426 million refunding deal this week.

DALLAS — The Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District between Dallas and Fort Worth is preparing to issue $102 million of refunding bonds without waiting for a triple-A guarantee from the Texas Permanent School Fund.

As Houston's comptroller, Annise Parker supervised millions of dollars worth of bond deals over the past six years. Now, as mayor, she will broaden her oversight of the city, with plans to tighten the budget and wield greater control over the Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority that is expanding the city's light-rail system.

Comal County commissioners last week set a May election on $36 million of general obligation bonds to build a new justice center in New Braunfels after residents stopped a plan to issue certificates of obligation for the facility.

The decline in sales tax collections that began in February continued in November, Texas Controller Susan Combs said last week, as the $1.7 billion of revenue that came in for the month was down 14.4% from November 2008.

DALLAS — The Texas A&M University System has called off a plan to issue $106.7 million of revenue financing system refunding bonds, citing market conditions that precluded sufficient savings.

DALLAS — The North Tarrant Express, a $2 billion toll road project that represents one of the largest public-private partnerships in Texas, begins its financial history clinging to investment-grade ­ratings.

DALLAS — Austin may be moving toward a $600 million bond election as the City Council considers ways to build a light-rail system.

DALLAS — Three large and growing school districts in Texas made significant leaps into the double-A leagues last week with Standard & Poor’s upgrades.

DALLAS — Two university systems based in Denton, Tex., will use more than $180 million of bond proceeds for new facilities, including a satellite campus in Dallas 35 miles to the south.

DALLAS — A team of developers will receive the proceeds of $400 million of private-activity bonds this month to finance one of the most ambitious public-private toll operations in Texas: a $2 billion project known as the North Tarrant Express.

DALLAS — School districts in Texas are seeing some green shoots after weathering nearly an entire year without the state’s Permanent School Fund backing for their bonds.

DALLAS — Harris County, Tex., today will issue the first of three bond deals worth a combined $550 million.

WASHINGTON — Brazos Student Finance Corp. wants to be the first student loan lender to ask institutional investors to voluntarily tender, at a discount, illiquid auction-rate securities in exchange for new floating-rate notes, about a year after a much larger and more complex offer failed.

DALLAS — Amid an ambitious expansion plan, the University of North Texas Board of Regents is preparing to issue $180 million of system revenue bonds for its Dallas campus and for a new football stadium at the main campus in Denton.

DALLAS — By a three-vote margin, the citizens of Andrews County, Tex., voted last May to finance a low-level radioactive waste dump with a $75 million bond issue, the first in the county’s history.

DALLAS — Texas will pump about $125 million of highly rated general obligation bonds into the market next week as the state pools funds for water development loans.

DALLAS — As the nation’s port business drifts at low tide, Corpus Christi, Tex., is preparing for better days with a $250 million mixed-use container terminal financed through a public-private partnership.

DALLAS — Local governments in Texas are keeping their belts tight as sales tax revenue continues to fall sharply.