Southwest

Plans to close LaMarque Independent School District near Houston have been placed on hold, prompting an update on the district’s A-minus underlying rating from Standard & Poor’s.

An 8.2% increase in income tax receipts kept Oklahoma revenues positive despite the continued weakness of oil and gas income.

Fast-growing areas of Texas are seeking $4.8 billion of bonds for cities, schools and special districts as legislators in Austin deliberate on funding priorities for local governments.

To finance a major expansion, the Texas Children’s Hospital will issue $354 million of debt, including fixed and variable rate bonds.

With the oil and gas sectors slowing, Texas saw sales tax revenues were up a modest year-over-year 1.1% in April, according to state Comptroller Glenn Hegar.

After a petition drive and series of legal battles, the Topeka, Kan., City Council rejected a proposal to buy the Heartland Park racetrack with state sales tax and revenue bonds.

Standard & Poor’s has shifted its outlook on Mesa, Ariz.’s utility debt to negative after transfers of revenue to the city’s general fund.

A push for $10 billion of pension bonds in the last days of the Colorado General Assembly died as the state Senate Finance Committee voted to postpone the bill indefinitely.

From fracking to plastic shopping bags, local governments are seeing unprecedented loss of control in the 2015 Texas Legislature, according to the Texas Municipal League.

Arizona gets a ratings lift from Moody's Investors Service to Aa2 from Aa3 as analysts cite efforts to stabilize the state budget.