Southwest

DALLAS — With its credit rating at the lowest rung of investment grade, Colorado’s E-470 Public Highway Authority has received a negative outlook from Fitch Ratings due to falling toll traffic.

DALLAS — As one of 35 states that tapped federal interest-free loans to cover unemployment benefits, Texas expects to issue about $2 billion of bonds to begin repaying them next year, officials said.

DALLAS — Kansas lawmakers will consider a 10-year, $8.2 billion comprehensive transportation program that authorizes an estimated $1.7 billion of state highway revenue bonds when they reconvene today in Topeka to develop a budget for fiscal 2011.

DALLAS — Boycotts in the wake of Arizona’s tough new immigration law could add pressure to the state’s slumping economy and further weaken revenue streams for sports and tourism bonds, industry experts said.

DALLAS — Amid Arizona’s deep economic decline, ­Phoenix is considering shelving $250 million of capital improvement projects that would have been financed by general obligation bonds.

DALLAS — The Kansas Senate Ways and Means Committee Wednesday adopted a proposed state budget for fiscal 2011 that is out of balance by more than $400 million.

DALLAS — For the first time since it became a state in 1912, Arizona could lift its constitutional debt limit from the original $350,000 — an amount so small that the state issues no general obligation bonds — to $3.9 billion under a measure in the Legislature.

DALLAS — Kansas lawmakers will return to Topeka on April 28 to deal with a growing budget shortfall that has worsened since the Legislature recessed in early April to await the latest revenue estimate.

DALLAS — Without a sales tax increase, the Denver area’s FasTracks transit system — originally designed as a 12-year project — would not be completed until 2042, according to the Regional Transportation District.

DALLAS — The Lower Colorado River Authority, a major public power wholesaler based in Austin, is preparing to issue $200 million of revenue bonds to refund commercial paper that financed expansion of the utility’s transmission system.