Southwest

DALLAS — After gulping down the rival Bexar Metropolitan Water District, the San Antonio Water System is ready to take advantage of low interest rates with a $245.6 million refunding.

DALLAS — Dallas is looking at a fiscal 2013 budget gap between anticipated revenues and expected expenses of $49 million at best, but at worst it could grow to $87 million, city manager May Suhm told the City Council Wednesday.

DALLAS — Conservative leaders of national and state anti-tax groups sent Oklahoma lawmakers a message Monday staking out a strict interpretation of a no-new-tax pledge signed by almost every member of the Legislature.

DALLAS — Two years after sharply retrenching in a harsh economy, Dallas Area Rapid Transit is enjoying a lift in its credit score from Fitch Ratings along with rising sales tax revenue and lower construction costs.

Houston last week broke ground on a $1 billion bond-financed redevelopment of George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Robert Shepard has resigned as the governor-appointed director of the North Texas Tollway Authority’s board. Shepard’s resignation comes as the board faces a probe into it past business practices by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but his departure is said not to be related to that inquiry.

The effort by the Kansas City suburb of Mission to tax residents for roadwork is illegal and cannot be collected, Attorney General Derek Schmidt said last week in a non-binding opinion.

Trustees of National Park Community College last week postponed an April property tax election until its bond counsel can determine if the revenue can be used for capital improvements.

Roads and streets in every city and all 75 counties of Arkansas would be improved and upgraded with revenue from a proposed 0.5% increase in the state sales tax, highway director Scott Bennett told lawmakers last week.

Chandler, Ariz.’s sales tax revenues recorded a 14.8% increase in the first four months of fiscal 2012, the most it has recorded since the same period of fiscal 2007.