Southwest

The San Antonio Independent School District will ask voters in November to approve its largest bond proposal, $515 million to upgrade facilities and technology.

Texas is preparing to issue a record $7.8 billion of tax and revenue anticipation notes as legislators confront the largest budget shortfall in state history.

Texas sales tax collections in July totaled $1.7 billion, up 2.2% from July 2009, with increases posted by the retail, construction, and oil and gas sectors.

Oklahoma tax revenues outpaced expectations in the first month of fiscal 2011, with $370.1 million in collections. The total is almost 10% better than July 2009 and almost 12% above the official state budget estimate.

The Oklahoma Transportation Commission last week approved the sale of $215 million of bonds to finance the next phase of the state's eight-year highway plan. The blueprint, which includes almost $4.3 billion of road and bridge work through 2018, is updated annually.

The New Mexico State Board of Finance has approved an across-the-board 3.2% budget cut for state agencies proposed by Gov. Bill Richardson to help alleviate a $200 million revenue shortfall in fiscal 2011.

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, the Republican candidate for governor of Kansas, has proposed a spending freeze for state government.

Voters in Saline County last week overwhelmingly defeated a proposal for a 1% sales tax to support $55 million of bonds for a new county fair complex.

The Kansas Department of Transportation will begin a $1.7 billion bond financing for the state's new transportation plan with today's negotiated sale of $325 million of taxable Build America Bonds.

DALLAS — The University of Texas System has approved building an $800 million hospital at its UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas that will be financed largely through revenue bonds.