A piece of legislation that was passed in the 77th Texas legislative session in 2001 is continuing to fund road improvements in the city of Magnolia.
At the Aug. 11 City Council meeting, a list of road improvements were approved for funding through House Bill 445, including restriping at locations along Smith Road, Melton Street and Buddy Riley Boulevard as well as installing barriers on Smith Road.
At the July 14 meeting, a number of road repavement projects were also approved through HB 445 funds, including locations along Acker Street as well as Texarkana, Odessa, Beaumont and Amarillo drives.
By law, HB 445 funds cannot be used to widen or create new roads and must only be used to maintain, repair or restripe streets, Magnolia Mayor Todd Kana said.
“We looked at the worst roads in the city that haven’t been fixed in many years,” Magnolia City Council Member John Bramlett said. “There’s been some new deterioration, so we wanted to catch some of those.”
The city has begun soliciting construction bids to restripe and repave the approved streets by the end of the year, Bramlett said. The total cost of the restriping and repaving projects has yet to be finalized, he said.
“For many, many years our city was limited because we didn’t have the infrastructure that we have now. ... This law that changed allows us to use sales tax, which really helps small cities.” —Magnolia City Council Member John Bramlett
HB 445 authorizes a city to hold an election to allocate up to one-fourth of 1 percent of sales tax revenue to repair and maintain city streets. The city of Magnolia collects one-fourth of 1 percent of sales tax revenue for HB 445 road projects with another one-fourth of 1 percent each allocated to the city’s 4A Economic Development Corporation and the city’s 4B Community Development Corporation.
“For many, many years our city was limited because we didn’t have the infrastructure that we have now,” Bramlett said. “Back in the early ’90s, we would put $5,000 to $10,000 in the bank to do roads, but that doesn’t go very far. This law that changed allows us to use sales tax, which really helps small cities.”
The HB 445 sales tax allocation expires after four years unless a new election is held to reinstate the tax. In May 2014, Magnolia voters passed a proposition to extend the tax for another four years.
“I believe that fund typically collects about $100,000 to $200,000 a year,” Kana said. “It’s been pretty steady, but it’s been increasing because our sales tax was up 13 percent for the last collection year. We haven’t always spent it, but there’s probably close to a $1 million in the fund.”
House Bill 157
In addition, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 157 into law June 20, which became effective Sept. 1. The legislation allows municipalities to increase its sales tax in increments of one-eighth of 1 percent that would not exceed the state’s 8.25 percent combined sales tax cap.
The council is interested in placing a proposition for HB 157 on the May ballot to allow voters to decide the allocation of funding for future city roadway improvement projects, Bramlett said.
“We’ll likely present it to the council sometime early in February for consideration,” Bramlett said. “If they agree, it’ll be on the ballot. It would give us more leverage as to what we do with the funds instead of holding our hands.”
