Southwest

DALLAS - Two former aides to Texas Gov. Rick Perry now hold top positions at the Texas Department of Transportation after former energy lobbyist and secretary of state Phil Wilson was named the agency's executive director.

DALLAS - Texas' chief revenue estimator told lawmakers Wednesday that revenues probably will not climb much this fiscal year, dimming hopes of avoiding another budget shortfall in two years.

DALLAS - Dallas Area Rapid Transit plans a 16% increase in debt service as it continues to expand its light-rail system under the fiscal 2012 budget that begins Saturday.

DALLAS - More than 100 school districts in Texas have passed board resolutions to join a promised legal challenge seeking to reconfigure the state's system for financing public education.

DALLAS - The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority will reduce its exposure to the vagaries of variable-rate debt and cut its debt service costs with next week's negotiated sale of $521.7 million of revenue refunding bonds.

DALLAS - The Arizona Transportation Board is scheduled to sell $164.5 million of excise tax revenue bonds in a competitive deal Tuesday.

The Utah Board of Regents last week voted to construct the first building on Utah State University’s Brigham City campus in a $15 million deal to be shared with the city.

Standard & Poor’s on Thursday lowered the outlook on Weslaco’s BBB-plus-rated general obligation debt to negative from stable.

BNSF Railroad plans to create a multi-modal logistics center at a New Mexico site known as Rancho Cielo that will include distribution, warehousing and manufacturing facilities, BNSF said at a public meeting in Belen last week.

Colorado Springs is remarketing $66 million of variable-rate utility refunding revenue bonds with a new liquidity provider, effective Tuesday.