Southwest

Trustees of Midland Independent School District, Texas will consider a long-range plan to build three new high schools designed to accommodate 2,100 students each.

The El Paso City put on the November ballot a plan to issue $468 million of general obligation bonds and to increase the city’s hotel tax by 2% to finance a baseball stadium.

Trustees of the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System voted last week to increase the contributions required of state and local governments for the fourth year in a row.

The Arizona Supreme Court said last week that a referendum on making permanent a temporary 1% state sales tax should go onto the November ballot.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery filed a brief last week in support of an effort to force a November referendum on Glendale, Ariz.’s 0.7% sales tax increase.

Texas cities, counties and schools are placing nearly $4 billion of bonds on the November ballot that will decide the presidential and statewide elections. Voters' moods are a concern.

Texas will issue $9.8 billion of tax and revenue anticipation notes to smooth cash flows for schools as the economy recovers. The note offering is 4.9% less than the prior year's, but still the state's second largest.

Rapid growth of wind farms in sparsely populated West Texas is a mixed blessing for school districts that have become "property wealthy" under the state's education funding formula, according to a report from Standard & Poor's.

A sales tax extension going to voters in Tulsa County, Okla., Nov. 6 would generate $748.8 million over 13 years for economic development and capital improvement projects. The 0.6% sales tax would be extended through 2029.

Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport begins a series of refundings that is expected to total nearly $1 billion, following a successful new-money AMT deal.