During its fifth bond discussion, the Boerne City Council now seems to favor a less expensive proposal focused on street and parks improvements.
The council reviewed several bond proposals and preferred a $36 million bond package which is intended to cover improvements to Adler Road and development of Northside Community Park along with other general road and park improvements across the city.
“I think the thoughtfulness that we have to put out right now is as we make this selection over the next month, month and a half, before we call the election in August: What do we think is palatable by the community? What do we think makes the most sense without going too far,” Boerne Mayor Tim Handren said. “That’s kind of where my head has gone with all the valuations of everything that’s happening inflation wise, property valuation, etc.”
The move toward a less costly bond proposal came after the city had eyed a $50 million bond which would’ve included the construction of a second fire station and several land acquisitions for parks and facilities.
“Given what we’ve seen with what other cities have delt with, I think we have to be pretty thoughtful with what it is we’re going to do here,” Handren said. “I know we’ve had discussions – and Kristy (Stark, assistant city manager) you can jump in on this, too – on the fire station, we’re really not ready to make a decision on that right now, correct?
“There’s still quite a bit of discussion going on with city staff about where that’s going to be. Recall from our discussion, we have two potential co-de- velopment opportunities, both in the Esperanza community and in Regent Park, and that may be one that’s good to pause on if we want to take something off the table.”
Stark said the reduced $36 million bond, if passed by voters in November, could result in a tax rate increase up to 6 cents per $100 valu- ation. She said such a tax rate increase would cause the average homeowner, with a property valued at $380,000, to see a $19 monthly increase to their property tax bill.
Handren and District 2 Councilmember Nina Woolard pointed out the last city’s last bond issuance in 2007 didn’t warrant a tax rate increase as property valuations climbed after the bond passed. However, Stark noted the city’s interest rates are expected to con- tinue climbing, tax rates will need to be adjusted to meet state limitations with the new property valuation
hikes seen across the state, inflation will continue to impact city expenses as it does personal pocketbooks and city staff is expect- ing to see an increase in contested valuations and increased tax exemptions.
The new bond proposal will be broken into two buckets, including $23 million for Adler Road and other road and intersection improvements and $13 million for development of Northside Community Park and other general park improvements. The Adler Road project is intended to widen the arte- rial road in town, adding a center turn lane.
Stark said the new bond proposal with more gen- eral projects could provide the city with a bit more cushion considering the rapid inflation and cost increases seen across sev- eral fields.
“The one thing to think about, too, is – you all get to decide what you want to move forward with – but as you’re looking at these numbers, we know that unless things change everything is very inflated right now,” Stark said. ...
“TxDOT sent out a lit- tle memo saying, ‘Hey, look at about a 35 percent increase on everything that you’re doing as far as projects go.’ So, if you do a dollar amount that includes some extra stuff instead of doing just Adler Road or just doing
Northside Park, that’s a little cushion as we go out and bid these projects. So, if some of them came in quite a bit higher than we expected, you’d still have the funds to be able to fund your larger ones. Then, we could look at coming back and funding the additional ones that are left over maybe in a differ- ent fashion.”
Many of the coun- cilmembers expressed satisfaction with prior- itizing road and park improvements, noting these are issues that are consistently mentioned by their constituents.
Woolard said any time there are public forums on what citizens wanted to see in the community, which she said city offi- cials and staff saw during open houses and public forums, streets, sidewalks and parks were “always the top comments that they wanted to see in our community.”
“I get an email daily almost about the condition of our roads,” Woolard said. “And you know the bottom line is we don’t have $10 million plus laying around to address a lot of these road issues that we’re looking at. I agree with the $36 million because it does address the two things the public had said over and over and over again are important to our community. ...
“We’ll let the public
decide. They can either vote yes or no, and if they’ve got two proposi- tions here, they can decide which is more important or they may decide nei- ther one of them. So, we can at least give it to the voters and the citizens and the taxpayers in the city of Boerne to decide what’s important to them.”
While Stark mentioned a few options the city could consider if any bond propositions were to fail, District 5 Councilmem- ber Joe Macaluso said he didn’t want to see a cer- tificate of obligation bond used to circumvent a pub- lic vote. A COB is another debt issuance measure cit- ies can use that does not require a public vote.
“What I do not want to do is put something out for a vote, that is declined – even though I know there’s a law that says you can’t come back for three years – I don’t want to come back period unless we put it back to the voters,” Macaluso said. “Because once the voters have declined, I do not wanttogotoaCOBasan alternative to their wishes at that point in time. I would rather re-educate and then come back at the next election if we think it’s important.”
The city council is looking to have a bond proposal on the November ballot, calling the election in August.
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