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Houston City Council Adds $410M Bond Question to Ballot, Putting Total at $2.7B Across the Local Governments

Posted byHoumanitarian

(Chris Moran, Houston Chronicle)
Houston voters will decide in November whether local governments can borrow more than $2.7 billion for schools, parks, libraries and public safety.

City Council OK’d its portion of that total Wednesday, a $410 million package of bond measures. The crowded and costly ballot during a presidential election has some questioning whether voters will balk at the price tag.

“I think the voters are going to most likely turn down all bond referendums on the November ballot,” Councilman Mike Sullivan said. “There is very little sentiment for more tax dollars to be spent right now on virtually anything. You can look at the Cruz campaign and the way that that election turned out, and there’s a message there. People are fed up. People are tired of excessive spending.”

Last week, Houston Independent School District trustees placed a $1.9 billion bond measure and Houston Community College’s board approved a $425 million proposition for the November general election ballot. If approved, HISD’s bonds would pay to renovate or rebuild most of the district’s high schools, remodel several elementary and middle schools and upgrade campus technology. District officials estimate the bond issue would require a nearly 5-cent property tax rate increase, starting in 2014. The phased-in rate hike would cost the owner of a $200,000 home an extra $70 a year in 2017, officials said.

The HCC bond issue would be used to update classroom technology, build a new medical center facility, expand campuses and boost workforce development programs. It also would phase in a 2 cent to 3 cent property tax rate increase. A 2 cent increase would translate to about $37 annually for the owner of a $150,000 house.

Mayor Annise Parker pitched the [City of] Houston measures as the smallest city borrowing proposal in three decades and emphasized that it will not require a tax increase…

…The bond measures come up this year as part of a routine cycle of going to voters every five to seven years for the equivalent of pre-approval for a mortgage so the city can borrow money to fix and replace its buildings, parks, streets and drainage.
(Read more of this story at the Houston Chronicle)

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