Southwest

Houston is issuing debt to raze derelict housing left behind by the city's rapid growth as part of a $332 million bond issue this week.

Rising costs and legislative cuts to funding may add strain to underlying ratings of Texas, according to special report from Standard & Poor's.

A team of El Paso, Texas, officials and advisors spent last week traveling to New York and Washington, D.C., to trumpet their planned nearly half a billion dollar bond-financed overhaul of the city's downtown area, which they see as a major game-changer for their region.

With the Texas Legislature considering bills that would invest about half of the nearly $12 billion rainy day fund into bond programs for water and transportation, Gov. Rick Perry is switching signals on how the fund should be used.

Nevada, Wyoming and Texas received high marks in a Morningstar report on how their state permanent fund programs affect credit analysis of individual bonds.

The Texas Senate on Wednesday considered a bill that would raise the levels of permitted radioactivity in waste delivered to a bond-funded dump site in Andrews.

San Antonio's booming Northside Independent School District will price $100 million of bonds Wednesday with soft-put features that are considered somewhat novel among Texas school districts.

Denver Public Schools will convert all of its variable rate debt to fixed rate and pay $129 million in swap termination fees with proceeds from a $529 million deal expected to go to market Wednesday.

El Paso County Hospital District will use proceeds from $152 million of certificates of obligation to build clinics and renovate a hospital in El Paso.

State tax collections were off in March, but the picture was brightened by healthy gains in the corporate income tax.