Southwest

Despite a two-year slump in the energy industry, local sales tax revenue for Texas cities, counties and other jurisdictions rose 1.2% in July, state Comptroller Glenn Hegar reported.

A rural Texas county along the route of a proposed high-speed rail link between Dallas and Houston voted in restrictions that could throttle the $10 billion private project.

Maricopa County, Ariz., told the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team it won't pay $65 million for repairs to the bond-funded Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, sparking a war of words between the team and the county government.

Experts in Kansas government say the defeats of many of Gov. Sam Brownback’s allies in the GOP primary showed that moderates have had enough of his policies of cutting taxes while reducing spending on state services.

Oklahoma’s continuing downturn in revenue has exceeded the slump that followed the global financial crisis of 2008, state Treasurer Ken Miller said.

After ending the 2016 fiscal year with a surplus, Arkansas began the new fiscal year with revenues running 1.7% below projections, officials said.

With energy in the doldrums, Texas saw its sales tax revenue fall 1.5% in July compared to the same month last year, said state Comptroller Glenn Hegar.

Kansas started its fiscal year $12.8 million below the revenue forecast for July, continuing a trend that factored into a credit downgrade from Standard & Poor's.

The University of Texas System will bring its triple-A credit to two bond deals worth a combined $609 million.

In the largest deal from Colorado this year, the Denver suburb of Aurora saved 12.9% on a $437 million refunding, official said.