Municipal quality-of-life projects powered by special spending

Area municipalities are reaping the benefits of growing sales tax revenue and reinvesting in their residents' quality of life.

Grapevine, Colleyville and Southlake have invested in Crime Control and Prevention Districts (CCPDs) with a part of their 2 percent of sales tax to fund public safety projects. Another portion has gone to amenities projects in each community as the tax bases and revenue have grown. Westlake has dedicated its sales tax revenues to its partnership with Westlake Academy. Budget work is under way in each city before the new fiscal year in October and will determine what kinds of quality-of-life work happens going forward.

Grapevine lives on sales taxes

Grapevine, which Finance Manager John McGrane said is somewhat unique among Texas cities, pulls a majority of its operating revenue from sales tax returns.

Records from the state comptroller's office show the community has earned more than $232.6 million in sales tax revenues from 2007-2013.

Voters approved a CCPD in 2006, and in 2011 it was renewed for an additional 15 years. McGrane said the CCPD funding provides most of the operating funds for the city's police and fire departments.

Because of the creation of the CCPD, the general fund has some critical leeway for general spending efforts, including a fund specifically for amenities projects.

"The city, the mayor and the council had the foresight not to roll [the former public safety money from the city's general fund] into more operating expenses but looked at community projects and programs—one-time expenditures," McGrane said.

The city makes a transfer every year into a special Quality of Life fund that piggybacks off of the freedom the CCPD has created within its general fund, McGrane said.

Grapevine's Quality of Life fund has been the mechanism behind more than $24 million in improvements during the past seven years, McGrane said. Among those projects are: Oak Grove Ball Park and its amenities; Dove Pool and Bathhouse; Casey's Clubhouse and various other trail extensions; crosswalks, spraygrounds, boat ramps, parking facilities, parks and playgrounds.

Colleyville's approach

Colleyville pulled in about $28 million in sales tax revenue from 2007–13.

Colleyville set up its CCPD in 1999, Communications Director Mona Gandy said. After voters renewed the initiative in 2003, the life of the district was extended to 2024. Allocations to the CCPD have grown from about $1 million to $1.5 million annually during the past seven years.

Gandy said the CCPD revenue's two primary uses are for funding seven police officer positions and paying debt service on the Colleyville Justice Center.

The center was completed in 2002 at a cost of $5.56 million.

A half-cent dedicated to the Colleyville Economic Development Corp. has been directed toward park improvements, acquiring park land, building the Colleyville Center and the Colleyville Public Library, Gandy said. Debt service funds for both the library and the Colleyville Center meeting and events space came from the CEDC's half-cent. Among the city's park funding efforts, Gandy said CEDC funds paid for a portion of the two phases of the McPherson Park project in 2008 and 2010.

Economic Development Director Marty Wieder said the community has been able to continue building on its sales tax revenue despite challenges such as Colleyville's location off the major highways that crisscross the area such as SH 114 and SH 121.

"Our city has never been dependent on sales tax," Wieder said. "If you look at major retail generators, we have very little property that fronts a freeway, and that's where retail normally goes. ... We've had to take a little different approach."

Filling vacant big-box spaces in the locations of the former Albertsons, Borders and Kroger through both matching grant programs and aggressive recruiting have helped build more development momentum that Wieder said is drawing attention to the community. D Magazine recently raised the community's ranking in its biennial review of top Dallas suburbs from No. 5 in the region to No. 3.

Southlake's approach

Southlake has collected more than $101.5 million in sales tax revenue from 2007–13. The city has had its CCPD in place since 1997 after voters approved its inception, and voters approved a 15-year extension in 2002. With annual sales tax revenue in the $13 million to $17 million range, the Southlake CCPD has had more than $4 million in its budget annually for the past several years. The city has used its growing coffers to pay for facilities projects and expand the School Resource Officer program in Carroll ISD, Finance Director Sharen Jackson said.

The DPS West facility that opened in 2002, the DPS Headquarters facility that opened in 2010 and the DPS North facility that opened in January 2014 have all been funded through the CCPD's revenue support, Jackson said. The SRO program expansion took place in July 2013, adding an SRO officer to provide safety and support at each CISD campus. The city funds 100 percent of that program with CISD.

Southlake Communications Director Pilar Shank said that if voters decide in May to funnel part of that CCPD fund into the pending Community Recreation Center Phase 2 project, an eighth-cent of remaining sales tax revenue for the CCPD would continue to support the school district police initiative.

Southlake has put parks and recreation on its list of priorities for more than 20 years, with a 1993 special election to set up its Southlake Parks Development Corp. Since then. SPDC revenues have grown into the $5 million–$6 million range annually. More than $54 million has gone to creating Bicentennial Park, Bob Jones Park, neighborhood facilities that dot the community, North Park, a senior center, trails, a sports complex and other amenities comprising more than 387 acres of land.

Westlake creates its own focus

Westlake logged about $27 million in sales tax revenues from 2007–13.

Town Finance Director Debbie Piper said the town thinks of municipal charter school Westlake Academy as the largest department of the town, and most of Westlake's annual sales tax revenue goes toward bonds for the academy facilities.

A recent expansion, set for completion and unveiling in the fall, includes a multi-purpose hall, portable stage, storage and a catering kitchen for dining and general purposes; a three-story secondary school that includes 12 classrooms and flex and office space; a fieldhouse; offices; and other improvements.