Travis County Commssioners Court
May 4, 2004
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Item 24
[One moment for change in captioners]
>> ...we obligated ourselves to pay for the right-of-way on state highway 45 north with a contract with txdot. We have authorized from the voters $33,900,000 for that project. In a contract with txdot, we obligated to pay them $31,800,000. They have come back at this point pretty much near completion and are indicating that they only need $19,281,791. Which means that they want to give us back $14,618,209. So that's good news.
>> when we deal with [indiscernible].
>> it's still sitting in our account.
>> contractually, we are obligated to pay them, although we have not paid them the entire amount yet. We have -- we are paying them in installments, and so what we're going to -- since they do need the money, they want to be able to say, okay, we'll leaf you of this legal -- relieve you of this legal obligation, which is important because we can reuse the bonds or make some use of that cash in lieu of reissuing debt. What this will take is an amendment to the agreement that we have between txdot and Travis County. I many here today just to seek direction from the court to proceed with drafting that amendment to the agreement. Now, let me get to part b. The paul part of the story.
>> before you get to that, the other piece of it is we still do an installment which we hope will be the final installment on 45 north, and they have asked us to expedite the last 10 million bucks.
>> I have already processed that payment. So that $10 million check should be in the mail.
>> cool.
>> it should be.
>> okay. We've got -- txdot is happy. Thank you.
>> now, the other project is loop 1 north. Again, we obligated ourselves to pay for the right-of-way. In this case we estimated 50% of the cost of the right-of-way within the unincorporated area. At the time we adopted that agreement, the estimated -- 50% of the total was about 7 million. That's 07, 7 million. They have now come back with nearly completing all of the acquisition and they are a little over $4 million short, which is our 50% of the amount over what they obligated. So they are looking for us to pick up the difference, which is $4,023,633. That would be an amount in addition to the $7 million that has already been paid to the state. The issue here is really that these pockets of money are in two different oppositions. The 45 north money was a combination of different bonds, 2001, and they are bound by this covenants, bond covenants. So I just can't take the $4 million out of the one project and transfer it to the other. Most of the money that we have on loop 1 north comes out of certificates of obligation. Actually certificates of obligation and bond money. What this means, and i've been asking the p.b.o. And the attorney's office, the bond counsel to give me help, on if the contract directs the county attorney to prepare amendments to these two agreements, how will we be able to finance it. We get $14 million back, I may have to just use that to diffuse the bonds or do something with that 14 million. We may end up having to issue an additional $4 million in certificates of obligation to pay for the loop 1 north. All told it's all coming out of the same pocket. I mean it's all paid for by the taxpayers of Travis County, but it's not -- there's a --
>> there are legal requirements we must meet.
>> legal requirements we have to meet in order to do that.
>> but there's no question that even after -- well, if we pay the 4 million on b, it will simply be us meeting our 50% commitment.
>> that's right.
>> the estimate was low.
>> that's right. Lower than the actual.
>> and we understand that. When you get into condemnation, sometimes it goes over what you expected.
>> one of the things joe and I discussed is txdot would love to have the $4 million yesterday, we still have to work through our process of not only dealing with the bond counsel, et cetera, et cetera, but if we do a special issuance, that 'costs money in and of itself, whereas we always have a normal process through the -- through our budget process of issuing c.o.s every year and it can be lumped in there. Once we get past October 1st, we can do reimbursement resolutions and take care of that and not have to expend any more money related to a special issuance when the sraoelt in a matter of months we're going to be in a new fiscal year and all of this stuff can happen in a logical, orderly way for p.b.o. And the bond attorneys to all work through everything that we need to get signed off before we could ever get to that point.
>> but p.b.o. And the lawyers are looking how to try and figure out how to get this done.
>> yes.
>> the quickest way, et cetera.
>> right. If you instruct us to go ahead and proceed with the amendments to the agreements, when we bring those back for adoption by the court, hopefully i'll have all the finances settled out by then.
>> okay. Anything from txdot before we take action?
>> appreciate the consideration, thank you.
>> [indiscernible].
>> and the 10 million is in the mail.
>> [inaudible].
>> judge, I would move approval on 24-a and b, that p.b.o., T.n.r., County attorney's office, bond counsel and any other appropriate staff move ahead with the proposed amendments as joe has laid them out on loop 1 and 45.
>> second.
>> and the best way to accomplish that.
>> seconded by Commissioner Gomez. Any more discussion? So when the document come back for us to bless both of these, we'll know the bond being issues, source of finance, et cetera.
>> right.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you very much. Thank you for your patience.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 5, 2004 7:38 AM