On Nov. 8, voters will decide whether to approve the bond, which includes three project categories. Most funding—$482 million—would go toward implementing parts of the city’s seven completed corridor plans as well as studying a new corridor plan in South Austin. Another $101 million would go toward regional mobility projects, and the remaining $137 million would be spent on local road projects and implementing parts of the city’s sidewalk, bicycle, urban trails and fatality-reduction plans.
Interim Chief Financial Officer Greg Canally said the city could issue $250 million in bonds without raising the debt service tax rate and would issue the remaining $470 million by raising that tax rate by an estimated 2.25 cents per $100 taxable valuation. Bonds would be issued by 2021, he said.
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“It’s important for cities to invest and have the public vote on [bonds],” he said. “A key factor of how debt works is it’s spread out over 20 years, and everyone who uses [the facilities built from bond funds] contributes to it.”
Calculating the impact of the increased tax rate is an issue Northwest Austin resident Roger Falk, an analyst with Travis County Taxpayers Union, refutes. He said fine print in the city’s own bond flier that says the city’s overall tax rate would increase to 53.39 cents, representing a 7.5 cent increase versus a 2.25 cent increase the city would need to sell all $720 million in bonds.
Canally said this language is required by state law to show the financial impact as if all the bonds were issued the day after the election.
“The assumption it makes is ... we would issue all $720 million and would have to raise immediately the tax rate, and that would be 7.5 cents,” Canally said. “We wouldn’t do that; that’s not how bonds work. Why is it not 7.5 cents eight years from now? We’re paying off existing debt over time.”
Falk said the city should use real numbers versus projections to provide the full picture.
“They say we’ll retire some debt, but if you went to a car dealership and they said, ‘You’re going to be paying your house off and that payment’s about the same as this car payment, so you’re getting the car free.’ That would be deceptive,” he said.
Falk also balks at the city’s use of the median-valued home price of $250,000 based on taxable value. He said using the mean would provide a more accurate and meaningful average, and appraisal district figures are outdated. He said data from the Austin Board of Realtors, which provides information on local home values, indicates the median home value has been above $340,000 for the past few months.He said he would support a bond without the corridor plans, which would be detrimental to business owners. As a commercial property owner, Falk said the plans also lead to more density and traffic congestion. He said many business owners do not know of the corridor projects and worries construction and the changes could harm their businesses.
“The city has not apprised these people of what is coming to them,” he said.
But Jim Wick, campaign manager for political action committee Move Austin Forward, said the primary outcome of the bond would be congestion relief.
“This bond proposition will significantly address congestion throughout all parts of the city and create more safety for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists,” he said. “This bond will provide a lot of transportation choices for Austinites.”
Wick said a number of projects are located in Northwest Austin, including expanding Parmer Lane, Spicewood Springs Road and Anderson Mill Road.
“The feedback we’ve gotten from the city is those are some of the biggest pain points,” he said. “In addition to those, which are mainly auto-centric expansions intended to help vehicles primarily, people who live in Northwest Austin, they also drive all parts of the city and use major corridors as well.”
