Southwest

Texas' largest county issued $196 million of road bonds with top ratings drawing strong demand from institutional investors.

Fort Worth will ask voters to approve using $225 million of public funds with matching private donations to build a $450 million multipurpose arena in the city's Cultural District.

Marijuana legalization has failed to live up to the hype in terms of its impact on state economies, according to the three major rating agencies.

San Antonio will close on a $233 million bond deal that includes new money and refunding after institutional investors quickly grabbed the top-rated bonds.

Texas emerged as the top state in bond volume in the first half of 2014 as issuance across the Southwest rose 1.9% compared to the same time last year, data from Thomson Reuters shows.

Revenues of $992 million surpassed those of any previous July, rising 7.4% over the same month last year, state Treasurer Ken Miller said.

The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority expects savings of 8.52% on $195 million of revenue refunding bonds pricing this month.

Fort Worth Independent School District should be able to absorb a finding that it owes the Texas Education Agency nearly $40 million, according to Moody's Investors Service.

Texas sales tax revenues rose 6.3% to $2.34 billion in July, marking the 52nd straight month of increases, state Comptroller Susan Combs said.

Standard & Poor's downgraded Kansas to AA from AA-plus and retained a negative outlook Wednesday, citing budget imbalances in the wake of controversial income tax cuts.