Southwest

DALLAS – The Texas A&M Transportation Institute will look into the feasibility of an eight-mile aerial tramway system in Austin known as the Wire that would move passengers high above the city’s often gridlocked roadways.

Hidalgo County Health Services Corp. debt issued for the Mission, Texas, Regional Medical Center moved closer to a default rating as S&P Global Ratings dropped $26.7 million of bonds to CCC from B-minus.

Three of Texas’ largest cities have already paid a price for unfunded pension obligations in the form of rating downgrades. Now there are worries that pension obligations could squeeze their ability to issue debt for infrastructure.

S&P Global Ratings downgraded to junk $172 million of bonds for two private immigration detention centers after two federal agencies announced initiatives to end or reduce use of such facilities.

Texas now has the nation's largest rainy day fund after Alaska drained nearly a third of its fund in one year, according to a study by the Texas Comptroller's Office.

Arkansas will study whether tolled lanes are the best way to finance a 14-mile segment of a new interstate highway.

Caught in a severe fiscal crisis after energy prices collapsed, Oklahoma is offering $181 million of revenue bonds to keep its highway construction program moving.

State and local governments and showing a wide variety of impacts from the collapse of the oil market that began two years ago, ratings analysts say.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner wants to issue $1 billion of bonds as part of a comprehensive 30-year plan to rein in the city’s ballooning pension liabilities.

Oklahoma’s pension fund investments are among the nation’s worst performers, with some turning negative in the last fiscal year, according to state Treasurer Ken Miller.