Texas

A change by the IRS increases the Permanent School Fund's capacity by nearly 86%, allowing its triple-A school bond guarantee to be widely available again.

Harris Health System is asking Harris County to place a bond proposition on the November ballot.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott traded barbs over the flow of migrants as the city has been overwhelmed since Texas began sending them on to Chicago last August.

Public school districts account for most of the bonds on ballots as some need to finance new facilities to accommodate rising enrollment.

Total volume for the month was $30.599 billion in 577 issues, down from $40.423 billion in 900 issues a year earlier. Total issuance year-to-date is at $107.626 billion, falling 25.2% from the same period of 2022.

A bill that advanced last week in the Texas Legislature would force a citywide vote on bonds for the Project Connect plan to build light rail.

Photos from The Bond Buyer's Texas Public Finance conference.

The growth in March tax collections reported by the states was less robust than a year earlier.

Tioga Independent School District, located north of Dallas, has a state-appointed monitor to develop and implement "a corrective action plan."

The measure, which passed with slim vote margins in the Republican-controlled legislature, could drive banks out of the state's market, according to the governor.

The publicly offered tax-exempt debt product is new for the firm and the collateralized debt obligation structure may be one of the first for the market since the 2008 financial crisis.

The House and Senate differ in their approaches to lowering property taxes by billions of dollars as the state anticipates a record budget surplus.

The state House Appropriations Committee dropped $3.86 billion from a supplemental spending bill, but its chair said the money is "still in play."

A plan to build a light rail system in the Texas capital city has come under financial and political pressure.

"Florida will not side with economic central planners; we will not adopt policies that threaten personal economic freedom and security," said Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Among the record number of bills filed in the biennial session are bills aiming to restrict or expand municipal bond issuance.

The Texas Education Agency, which initially sought the takeover in 2019, will appoint managers to run the state's largest public school system.

Revenue bonds sold in 2018 for the project would be paid over seven years at lower rates under the Chapter 11 exit plan for the Bridgemoor at Plano debt.

The much-delayed $3.5 billion deal has an optional limited make-whole redemption if state lawmakers appropriate funds to defray costs for natural gas customers.

Legislation barring government contracts with companies that engage in a growing list of "boycotts" in their business dealings has popped up in several states.