Southwest

The Texas Department of Transportation will dedicate an additional $2.5 billion for 19 new projects aimed at relieving congestion in the major metro areas if the supervisory Texas Transportation Commission approves.

The San Antonio Water System is facing its first audit by the Internal Revenue Service in years, as the IRS examines the tax-exemption on $83 million of bonds.

Parker Schenken, a veteran public finance attorney from Nebraska, will join the public finance team at Sherman & Howard in Denver, the firm said.

For the second month in a row, Oklahoma reported positive revenue collections in February over the same month last year, state Treasurer Ken Miller said.

Issuers in California and Texas accounted for more than one-third of S&P Global’s public finance ratings upgrades last year.

Monthly sales tax revenue registered the second-largest gain of the fiscal year in February, rising 4.4% above the same month last year to $2.4 billion.

Utah lawmakers are expected to approve $1 billion of new road bonds before session expires Thursday.

Oklahoma expects strong demand for $70 million of capitol repair bonds despite an S&P downgrade and continuing struggles to cover a nearly $900 million revenue shortfall.

President Donald Trump’s plan to rely on private prisons to house federal inmates and immigration detainees is reviving interest in the high-yield bonds that financed the lockups.

Amid a two-year budget shortfall of nearly $800 million, Kansas lawmakers must increase funding for public schools, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.