Southwest

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

La Marque Independent School District's $23 million of debt is on Standard & Poor's watch list for a downgrade after Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams ordered the district closed.

After 14 years of appointments by ex-Gov. Rick Perry, the Texas Transportation Commission will see its first board members named by Perry's successor Gov. Greg Abbott.

Affluent Scottsdale, Ariz., will offer investors $160 million of top-rated general obligation refunding bonds and $117 million of excise-tax revenue bonds that are doubly tax-exempt in the Grand Canyon State.

The Kansas House Transportation and Public Safety Budget Committee has removed Gov. Sam Brownback's budget-balancing proposal to transfer $280 million from the Kansas Department of Transportation to the general fund.

As falling oil prices threaten the economy of Texas' so-called "chemical coast," Port Arthur Independent School District will take advantage of the state's triple-A guarantee with $80 million of bonds. The district will also issue $20 million of refunding bonds not backed by the PSF.

The Conroe Industrial Development Corporation in Texas has requested a settlement under the Internal Revenue Service's voluntary closing agreement program to resolve a tax violation relating to bonds it issued in 2008 and 2012.

Election-year politics and lower oil prices threaten Houston's boomtown image as the city prepares to issue $128 million of hotel occupancy tax and special revenue refunding bonds.

Texas sales tax revenues recorded in January rose 11.2% year over year to $2.56 billion amid falling oil prices, Comptroller Glenn Hegar said. The January totals were the third highest on record.

While Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says the state must appropriate $12 million to patrol the border of Mexico for five months, House Speaker Joe Straus appears less enthusiastic about the costly proposal.