At its meeting on May 4, Friendswood City Council approved an ordinance with two significant financial proposals and an ordinance to move the street maintenance tax special election to July 14.

The special election on July 14 is for the street maintenance sales tax which was first passed by Friendswood residents in May 2016. The sales tax consists of an additional ⅜ of a cent which directly funds maintenance and repairs on existing streets.

City Manager Morad Kabiri clarified that the city has not yet received final word from the governor’s office on whether an election can be held in July. The decision by city council was made with the expectation that if the July election is approved, the ordinance will already have been passed in the time frame allotted for the city.

“This tax can generate $2 million, or a lot each year, and that’s money we can use to put towards repairing these streets that are getting a little old here in the city of Friendswood,” Mayor Mike Foreman said.

The financial ordinance first refunds the remainder of the Series 2010A and 2010B bonds, which total $2.97 million. The city will save almost $400,000 in interest from this decision, according to a press release sent out by the city.

Second, the ordinance approved the sale of $8 million of the $51 million in bond propositions passed by voters in the November 2019 bond election.

The 2019 bond includes nine sections to address Friendswood city needs such as replacing FIre Station 2 and several drainage related projects.