Sources: Harris County/Community Impact Newspaper[/caption]

Harris County The Commissioners Court has asked county officials to prepare recommendations for a bond referendum on the November ballot by late July or early August. The bond could include road and bridge projects in addition to parks, libraries and other capital improvements.

“Anybody that drives around Houston knows the need [and] sees the congestion,” county engineer John Blount said.

The amount of a potential bond is unknown, but Blount said it would likely be more than the county’s last bond in 2007, which provided $365 million, including $190 million for roads and bridges.

Blount said specific projects are not usually identified for Harris County bonds, in part due to the county’s ability to quickly get construction underway.

Although there are Precinct 4 projects that could require funding, such as the widening of Kuykendahl and Gosling roads, it is unknown which projects could potentially be funded by a bond, said Mark Seegers, director of communications for Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle.   

Seegers and Blount said the county’s budget office has been tasked with providing a dollar recommendation that would not increase the tax rate.

“The mood is that to pass a bond package, people are going to have to know that the [county] can manage it within whatever [its] current bond rate is,” Seegers said.

In addition to roads Blount and Seegers said the bond package will likely include funding for parks and for renovations to libraries. It may also include funding for a new veterinary health and pet adoption center and for expansions to some annex buildings for justices of the peace.

Blount and the county’s budget office were asked at a June 23 hearing to bring a recommendation to the Commissioners Court by late July or early August in time for the court to vote on whether to place the bond on the ballot for the upcoming Nov. 3 election.