2011 Travis County Bond Package
2011 Travis County Bond Package
On Tuesday, January 4, 2011, Travis County Commissioners discussed preparations for a bond referendum. They are expected to make a final decision in August or September on whether to call the election and what projects would be included.
The early list included $295.5 million for widening and extending existing roads and other small projects, $82.9 million for pass-through financing with the Texas Department of Transportation, and $95.3 million for parks spending and smaller amounts for drainage, pedestrian and bicycle safety projects, but did not include buildings. Among the parks items was $18 million to acquire 870 acres for open space near the Pedernales River and $20 million to buy greenspace countywide. County leaders initially said that they might also call for a November bond election for the construction of a civil courthouse — expected to cost at least $300 million — on a downtown lot that the county purchased in December 2010, but ultimately decided not to include the building in the November 2011 bond package..
The county's Transportation and Natural Resources Executive Manager Steve Manilla lists the following projects among the top priorities for a possible November bond referendum:
Precinct 1: Building four lanes to connect Parmer Lane to FM 973, total cost $6.62 million; two new lanes for Austin's Colony secondary access road, $3.97 million; four new lanes on Tuscany Way between U.S. 290 and Springdale Road, $4.25 million
Precinct 2: Widening Dessau Road from four to six lanes between Parmer Lane and Wells Branch Parkway, $7.5 million
Precinct 3: Widening 1.4 miles of Bee Creek Road from two to four lanes, $9.23 million
Precinct 4: Building four new lanes on Slaughter Lane from Thaxton Road to FM 973, $18.95 million
Citizens Bond Advisory Committee
On Tuesday, February 22, 2011, the Travis County Commissioners formed a 15-member Citizens Bond Advisory Committee (CBAC) consisting of three appointments from each Court member as follows:
County Judge Sam Biscoe's appointees: Celia Israel, Terry Irion, and Nell Penridge
Commissioner Ron Davis' appointees: Joyce Thoresen, John Williams, and Thomas Fritzinger
Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt's appointees: Nicole Francois, Jeffrey Travillion, and Larry Ingram
Commissioner Karen Huber's appointees: Mark Taylor Evert, Leigh Naftolin, and Carolyn Vogel
Commissioner Margaret Gomez's appointees: Frank Fuentes, Joe Gieselman, and Rosa Rios Valdez
The CBAC elected its own chair and developed its own operating procedures within the guidance of the charter approved by Commissioners in January 2011. The committee's primary function was to advise the Travis County Commissioners Court on the appropriateness of a bond referendum, the overall scope of a potential bond package, and a prioritized list of projects, possibly to include improvements to county roads and bridges, parks, open space, storm water drainage, and pedestrian and bicycle facilities and new facilities projects such as a new civil courthouse, a medical examiners facility, new county office space, and parking.
At the Thursday, March 24, 2011 meeting, the Citizen Bond Advisory Committee (CBAC) was briefed by County Attorney David Escamilla regarding the legal parameters that will guide the Committee's work. That presentation was followed by a briefing from the Planning and Budget Office (PBO) staff regarding the County's debt capacity and the affordability for a 2011 bond election.
- The PBO staff is recommending a $400 million bond package to be issued during the course of seven years. That recommendation is to include $150 million for road, bridge, drainage, bicycle, pedestrian, parks, and open space projects. The remaining $250 million should be reserved for facilities projects. The Travis County Commissioners Court has not yet decided on what facilities projects to recommend.
- According to the debt modeling projections the PBO staff presented, a $400 million bond package would increase the property tax rate from $0.0795 to $0.0959 resulting in a 1.64-cent increase per $100 valuation. The effect on an average Travis County home, valued at $274,000, would be a $36 a year increase.
- The County's Transportation and Natural Resources staff then gave the committee a revised list of projects dated March 23, 2011. Those projects total $637,971,700. The committee must pare that down to $150,000,000.
- Of that $637,971,700, the road, bridge, drainage, bicycle, and pedestrian projects total $526,566,700. The parks projects (including the acquisition of open space) total $111,105,000.
- The CBAC then elected a chair, vice-chair, and parliamentarian. The chair is Frank Fuentes, the vice-chair is Carolyn Vogel, and the parliamentarian is RECA member Terry Irion.
The CBAC met twice in April. At the Thursday, April 7, 2011 meeting, the CBAC received an updated list of candidate projects. The group also discussed the need to have two subcommittees - one to concentrate on road projects and the second to evaluate parks. At the Thursday, April 21, 2011 meeting, staff from Travis County’s Transportation and Natural Resources Department gave an overview of the projects on the preliminary list of candidate projects. The committee also received a briefing on the draft project scoring criteria.
The CABC also met every Thursday in May at 5:30 p.m. at the Joe C. Thompson Conference Center at the University of Texas. Each meeting, which is open to the public, will be announced and posted on the Travis County web site.
The group formed two subcommittees that were recommended in April. At each meeting, the full committee will meet for 30 minutes and then break into subcommittees. All members self-selected sub-committee assignments. Staff predicted that of the proposed $150 million for Transportation and Natural Resources projects, there would be roughly $80 million for roads and added capacity projects and $70 million of drainage and parks.
Roads and Added Capacity Subcommittee
Nicole Francois
Thomas Fritzinger
Larry Graham
Terry Irion
Jeffrey Travillion Sr.
Joyce Thoresen
Rosa Rios Valdez
John Williams
Drainage and Parks Subcommittee
Mary Taylor Evert
Frank Fuentes
Joe Gieselman
Celia Israel
Nell Penridge
Carolyn Vogel
At its Thursday, May 5, 2011 meeting, the CABC received a staff report on the preliminary, revised list of candidate roads and added capacity projects, parks, and drainage projects. The CABC then received a comprehensive overview of the draft scoring criteria for all project categories. There was some discussion about whether it was the CABC’s role to recommend changes to the scoring criteria. RECA subsequently sent the CABC a communication supporting a public involvement vetting process for the scoring criteria.
On Thursday, May 26, 2011, the Texas Transportation Commission approved pass-through funding for two of the projects currently on the Travis County staff recommendations to the CBAC. The pass-through program allows a jurisdiction to pay for road improvements on state roads and enter into an agreement for TxDOT to repay a portion of the project. The FM 969 project qualified for a $7.2 million repayment. The total cost of the project, which will widen FM 969 from two to five lanes between Brodie and FM 2304, is nearly $14 million ($13,987,000,000). The second project, widening FM 1626 from two to five lanes between Brodie and FM 2304, qualified for $4.0 million in pass-through financing. The cost of that project is just under $12 million ($11,920,000,000). The total cost of these two projects is nearly $26 million. Both of these projects are on the CBAC priority list. They will need to be funded in order to get the partial repayment from TxDOT in the future.
On Wednesday, June 15, 2011, Travis County released a draft narrative summary of the roads and parks priority projects on which public hearings were conducted Monday, June 20 through Thursday, June 30, 2011.
The CBAC met on Thursday, July 7 and Thursday, July 14, 2011 to draft a final report. The report was presented to Commissioners Court on Tuesday, July 19, 2011, followed by a public hearing on Tuesday, July 26, 2011.
On Tuesday, August 9, 2011, Travis County Commissioners unanimously approved approximately $120.4 million in road projects and $73.9 million in parks projects, including buying land for conservation as well as park improvements, for a proposed bond referendum in November 2011. In an election, there would be separate propositions for roads and for parks. Taxes will go up if voters approve the list of projects. Commissioners amended the transportation and drainage projects recommended by the CBAC last month as follows:
• deleted $500,000 for preliminary engineering design work for Lohman Ford Road in the Lago Vista area.
• added about $2 million for a total of about $9.3 million for additional work to Bee Creek Road in western Travis County, expanding the entire road to four lanes with sidewalks and bike lanes.
• added a $7.66 million Taylor Lane project, which would expand the two-lane county road to four lanes with sidewalks and bike lanes to relieve congestion for a future housing development in northeastern Travis County.
On Tuesday, August 16, 2011, the Travis County Commissioners called a bond election for Tuesday, November 8, 2011 for two propositions. Including inflation and issuance costs, the roadway, drainage, bridge, and bike/pedestrian ballot item will total $132.8 million and the parks and land conservation ballot item will total $82.1 million. Included in the parks and land conservation ballot item is $20 million for purchase of 700 acres of Pedernales open space with 50 acres set aside for a life estate of the current owners who have the option to purchase a hunting and grazing lease for an annual fee of $5,000 on the other acreage with the exception of 70 acres of riverfront acreage. That 70 acres is immediately available for County use and is not subject to the life estate or leasing.
On Wednesday, September 7, 2011, RECA's Board of Directors voted to support the County bond package. On Friday, September 9, 2011, RECA’s issues political action committee voted to contribute to the Travis Two Step campaign to promote the bond package.
Early voting ran from October 24 through November 4, 2011. Election Day was Tuesday, November 8. 2011.
Proposition 1 passed with 59.4 percent of the vote. Proposition 2 also passed and garnered 59 percent of the vote. The turnout was 8.72 percent of registered voters.
For more information, contact Carol B. Joseph at 521-854-9418.
NEW RECA Resolution in support of the bond package
2011 Prioritized List of Projects (June 9, 2011)
DRAFT Scoring Criteria (April 1, 2011)
2011 Travis County Bond Program Timeline (March 11, 2011)
2011 Travis County Citizens Bond Advisory Committee Charter (January 18, 2011)
Superceded 2011 Prioritized List of Projects (May 26, 2011)
Superceded 2011 Prioritized List of Projects (May 5, 2011)
Superceded 2011 Prioritized List of Projects (April 6, 2011)
Superceded 2011 Prioritized List of Projects (March 23, 2011)
Superceded 2011 Prioritized List of Projects (January 7, 2011)
