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Voters in San Antonio on Saturday approved four proposals to use visitor taxes to fund $415 million in civic improvement projects for the area.

Bexar County voters decided to extend a 1.75 percent tax on hotel rooms and a 5 percent tax on short-term car rentals to fund four separate propositions: Improvements to the San Antonio River, new youth and amateur athletic facilities, renovations of arts centers and upgrades to rodeo grounds and arenas, including the AT&T Center.

The proposals for river improvements and work on new youth facilities were each approved with more than 70 percent of the vote, according to final unofficial returns. About 65 percent of voters approved renovation of arts centers. The closest proposal was a 57-43 percent vote in favor of rodeo grounds and arena upgrades.

The Bexar County venue tax was originally approved in 1999 to help pay for the AT&T Center, where the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs play.

In the race for mayor of the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch, the councilman who pushed for one of the country’s most sweeping anti-illegal immigration measures was defeating a businessman who opposed the costs of trying to enforce the ordinance. Tim O’Hare had about 64 percent of the vote to Gene Bledsoe’s 36 percent with about half the voting precincts reporting.

O’Hare steered the City Council into a November 2006 ordinance barring apartment rentals to illegal immigrants. The rule was revised months later to include exemptions for minors, seniors and some families with mixed immigration status. Bledsoe was treasurer of a group that opposed the ordinance.

Residents endorsed the rental ban 2-to-1 in May 2007 during the nation’s first public vote on a local government measure meant to combat illegal immigration. A federal judge later blocked Farmers Branch from enforcing its ordinance. The case remains in court.

Carrollton Mayor Becky Miller, whose colorful background had come into question in recent days, was locked in a virtual dead heat with challenger Ron Branson with about half the votes counted.

Officials say Miller’s tales include an engagement to Eagles drummer Don Henley and stints as a backup singer for Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne. Miller has also spoken of a brother who died in Vietnam.

Family members, school officials and spokesmen for the famous musicians contacted by The Dallas Morning News said none of the stories are true.

Miller said she never made some of the claims.