Southwest

DALLAS - Financial accounting problems brought Surprise, Ariz., its second downgrade in a week, as Fitch Ratings lowered the Phoenix suburb's implied unlimited tax general obligation rating to A-plus from AA-minus.

DALLAS — Arizona State University will use $230 million of revenue bond proceeds for a variety of projects at its Tempe and satellite campuses.

DALLAS — Dallas would issue up to $25.5 million of 10-year certificates of obligation to upgrade the city-owned Cotton Bowl stadium under a plan outlined Monday to the City Council's budget and finance committee.

DALLAS — Kansas lawmakers will return to Topeka in three weeks to resolve differing version of the state's $14.1 billion budget proposal for fiscal 2013 after an agreement fell apart over the weekend.

DALLAS — Arizona's Salt River Project Agricultural and Power District forecasts a 20% increase in debt to $5.3 billion by the end of fiscal 2016, even after reducing its capital program.

Travis County District Judge John Dietz said last week he intends to combine four lawsuits challenging Texas’ school finance laws into a single case. A fifth group of plaintiffs will be included as interveners in one of them.

The Dallas City Council last week approved a request by Uplift Education for up to $90 million of tax-exempt bonds to build new charter public schools in Dallas and Fort Worth.

The first monthly revenues from the 1% increase in Little Rock’s sales tax rate approved last year by voters totaled $3.4 million, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration said last week.

Standard & Poor’s last week lowered Surprise, Ariz.’s issuer rating to A from AA and assigned a negative outlook.

DALLAS — Standard & Poor's has lowered its rating on the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority's revenue bonds one notch to AA-plus with a stable outlook.