Southwest

DALLAS — A general obligation bond program going to El Paso, Texas, voters in November grew from an initial $200 million to a new total of up to $835 million at a special City Council meeting Wednesday.

DALLAS — Dallas can ask voters for $600 million of new general obligation debt in November without raising the tax rate under revised projections outlined Wednesday to the City Council.

Colorado Springs Utilities System was on review for a possible downgrade of its Moody's Investors Service rating of Aa2 Tuesday as the city prepared to issue $106 million of revenue refunding bonds.

DALLAS — Texas Gov. Rick Perry called Monday for a state constitutional amendment to link and limit increases in state spending to population growth plus inflation.

DALLAS — The Houston Airport System's plan for a $100 million expansion of William P. Hobby Airport hit some turbulence this week as City Council members expressed opposition to a study backing the move on behalf of Southwest Airlines.

DALLAS — Albuquerque took its lofty credit ratings to market Monday in a competitive deal to raise $78.8 million for projects in New Mexico’s largest city.

Texas collected $1.87 billion of sales tax revenue in March, up almost 17% from collections in March 2011.

A preliminary Travis County state district court ruling on whether oil and gas drilling and production equipment is exempt from the Texas sales tax could cost the state millions of dollars a year in lost revenues and billions more in refunds.

Local governments in Wyandotte County, Kan., last week shared more than $843,000 from the first monthly distribution of revenues from a casino that opened in early February.

Trustees of Sedgwick County Unified School District 259 last week revived $8 million of bond projects at nine Kansas schools that had been postponed, but they are still looking for additional financing to build tornado safe rooms at district schools.