Southwest

DALLAS — The Port of Houston Authority of Harris County will take advantage of its highly rated credit tomorrow by offering $327 million of refunding bonds, a deal that comes amid major expansion plans for one of the nation’s busiest cargo and petro-chemical facilities.

DALLAS — The Lower Colorado River Authority, one of the largest wholesale energy providers in Texas, aims to take advantage of favorable interest rates with a $426 million refunding deal this week.

DALLAS — The funding gap for the Denver area’s FasTracks transit plan has grown to $2.5 billion — a $300 million increase since 2009 — even though the construction cost estimate has fallen by nearly the same amount, according to the Regional Transportation District.

DALLAS — A joint Kansas legislative committee has passed along two versions of a plan for financing the state’s next 10-year transportation effort to the Legislature, which will begin its 2010 session on Monday.

DALLAS — The Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District between Dallas and Fort Worth is preparing to issue $102 million of refunding bonds without waiting for a triple-A guarantee from the Texas Permanent School Fund.

DALLAS — Last week’s downgrades of Arizona’s debt by two rating agencies will have its most immediate impact on the sale of $735 million of certificates of participation to raise cash for the financially strapped state early next month.

The Tulsa suburb of Jenks will hold a Feb. 9 election on a $6.7 million bond issue that would provide the required local match to three street projects.

Tim Gilpin, a member of the Oklahoma Board of Education, last week criticized legislative leaders for not calling a special session to address a $43 million cut in state aid to education over the past four months.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe last week shot down a proposal to shift a portion of sales tax revenues to highway projects before a transportation financing committee had a chance to suggest the move.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled last week in a unanimous decision that Pulaski County levied a 20-year, one-mill increase in the property tax rate a year earlier than it should have.