Southwest

A proposed $2 billion rail transport system to northeastern Utah's Uinta Basin oil producing region is shelved as the estimated cost more than doubled to $5 billion, state officials said.

Texas Department of Transportation executive director Joe Weber said he expects the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature to de-emphasize toll roads after a series of protests and a general feeling of "toll fatigue."

Gov.-elect Greg Abbott said he wants to invest an additional $4 billion in road and transportation projects in Texas without raising taxes or tolls. Abbott will succeed Texas' longest-serving governor, Rick Perry, in January as the 2015 Legislature convenes.

Tarleton State University, part of the Texas A&M University System, plans to build a new Fort Worth campus on 80 acres of land donated by the Walton Group of Companies.

Bexar County plans to refund $332.7 million of bonds backed by venue and car rental taxes. The previously issued debt financed improvements to AT&T Center sports arena and San Antonio's tourism projects.

More than 16 years after Dallas voters approved $246 million of bonds for development of parks and a "parkway" between the levees of the Trinity River, the city still has work to do. The "parkway" has become a proposed high-speed toll road whose financing is still undetermined. Meanwhile, bond money is continuing to build bridges, trails and nature centers in the 10,000-acre area designated as the Trinity River Corridor.

San Antonio is planning to issue more than $600 million of bonds this month and next for its water and electric utilities, with most of the proceeds going toward refunding.

Agencies in Arizona, California and Nevada are expected to agree on reduced consumption of water from Lake Mead as a 14-year drought continues to lower the reservoir toward a level that requires federal restrictions.

In its only bond deal this year, Dallas expects to raise about $530 million for new money and refunding, including debt authorized for the Trinity River Corridor Project in 1998.

After a record year of bond issuance, the Texas Department of Transportation has reduced its borrowing costs by $425 million through refunding at historically low interest rates, officials said.