Southwest

DALLAS — Just seven weeks after voters approved a record $515 million bond package, the San Antonio Independent School District is ready to price the first $150 million Tuesday.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $117.45 million of variable-rate demand utilities system subordinate-lien refunding revenue bonds that were issued in 2004 by Colorado Springs, Colo., for Colorado Springs Utilities to refund some 1994 bonds.

DALLAS — Top Texas leaders have asked state agencies to cut their fiscal 2011 budgets by 2.5% due to lower-than-expected revenue during the first year of the state’s current two-year budget cycle.

Facing more budget-balancing challenges in 2011, Colorado will issue $500 million of tax revenue anticipation notes Thursday to smooth cash flows in the coming year.

San Antonio this week plans to price $101 million of airport revenue bonds with an increasingly unusual feature — bond insurance.

A report by two state agencies determined that if Texas withdrew from the Medicaid health care program, it would cost the state $15 billion a year in federal funds.

Houston finance director Michelle Mitchell resigned last week, saying she wanted to re-enter the private sector after four years with the largest city in Texas.

A special legislative committee in Kansas has recommended reconsidering two state pension reform bills next year that failed in the 2010 Legislature.

Citing better-than-expected revenues during the first five months of fiscal 2011, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe last week ordered the Department of Finance and Administration to reinstate cost-of-living adjustments, career-service recognitions, and merit pay for state employees.

The city of Surprise will use loans from a number of its accounts to cover shortfalls resulting from the misapplication of $73 million of impact fee revenues.