Southwest

The State Board of Education said last week that additional cuts in state aid to 293 public school districts due to declining state revenues would harm the quality of education in Kansas.

The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System reported an 11.3% increase in its investments in the third quarter of 2009, as investments rose $856 million during the period to $9.66 billion.

Voters in Benton last week rejected a 0.5% increase in the city sales tax for public safety efforts by a vote of 1,815 to 1,095.

DALLAS — Harris County, Tex., today will issue the first of three bond deals worth a combined $550 million.

WASHINGTON — Brazos Student Finance Corp. wants to be the first student loan lender to ask institutional investors to voluntarily tender, at a discount, illiquid auction-rate securities in exchange for new floating-rate notes, about a year after a much larger and more complex offer failed.

DALLAS — Amid an ambitious expansion plan, the University of North Texas Board of Regents is preparing to issue $180 million of system revenue bonds for its Dallas campus and for a new football stadium at the main campus in Denton.

DALLAS — By a three-vote margin, the citizens of Andrews County, Tex., voted last May to finance a low-level radioactive waste dump with a $75 million bond issue, the first in the county’s history.

DALLAS — Oklahoma’s general fund revenue fell below expectations for the 10th consecutive month in October, but Treasurer Scott Meacham said the state’s economy may be poised for recovery, as the decline was not as steep as in recent months.

DALLAS — Texas will pump about $125 million of highly rated general obligation bonds into the market next week as the state pools funds for water development loans.

DALLAS — As the nation’s port business drifts at low tide, Corpus Christi, Tex., is preparing for better days with a $250 million mixed-use container terminal financed through a public-private partnership.