Travis County Commissioners Court
February 15, 2005
Item A2
A 2. Is to consider and take appropriate action on request for county judge to approve issuance of a revenue bonds by the capital area cultural education facilities finance corporation. For the roman catholic diocese of Austin.
>> and jerry kyle is here and representing the -- the diocese, he would like to make a short presentation.
>> okay.
>> how are you doing?
>> good, thank you. Judge Biscoe, commissions, thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I'm jerry kyle with andrews curtis here in Austin. We have been working with the catholic diocese of Austin here for several months and -- and the item on the agenda for your approval today is to approve the financing transaction and the financing of certain projects that -- a brief overview of the financing is that -- the diocese is -- is proposing to finance with tax exempt bonds a -- to finance and refinance a variety of facilities located within its jurisdiction, which covers 25 counties. Diocese' jurisdiction covers 25 counties in the central Texas area. Of those counties, facilities are located in 10 counties that will be financed or refinanced with the proceeds of these bonds. The -- the facilities are -- are educational facilities, schools, and -- and community centers. In parish hall type of facilities. And that's kind of it in a nutshell. -- we've had our -- three hearings last week. The -- there was a -- there was no comment in -- no attendees at those hearings. One was here in Travis County, one was in mclennan county, the other was in college station. And -- and we are requesting your approval today.
>> these are educational processes? The schools are education obviously, but so the other facilities --
>> yeah. The education facilities are primary and secondary schools. The other facilities are parish halls and community centers that are located in various parishes around the diocese.
>> will they have activities as well?
>> yes, ma'am, yes, yes. Scouting meetings, alcoholics anonymous, a variety of other kinds of activities. The law apparently authorizes the county judge to approve this. Historically I have posted them on the court's agenda. One is so that we would know what's going on. But I guess so far we have always pretty much approved them. This does affect 11 -- projects in 11 counties of 25.
>> yes, sir.
>> under the jurisdiction of this diocese.
>> I might have misspoke. It's -- it's 10 or 11.
>> 52 projects in 11 of those counties.
>> right.
>> I am reading the back of this in terms of -- this is out of crude Moore and -- creedmore, no offense, there's not much to the city of creedmore other than a sign that says creedmore. And I'm just curious as to how much their corporation is going to make on this deal because of the -- of the fees or issuance or whatever.
>> the fee for the -- for the corporation itself?
>> uh-huh.
>> is going to be approximately $50,000.
>> is this the first of many in terms of -- of undercutting others that are out there. And Travis County is only one that has a cultural educational facilities corporation. I'm not standing in the way, I'm just -- this is for education for future because I certainly have every intent of voting for this. But -- but I wasn't aware that creedmore was getting into the business. I know we had this issue come up before, harvey, I can't remember the name of this little town. For some reason I want to say like rose hips or something, a strange little name that all of a sudden decided to get into -- form a corporation simply for the purposes of racking up fees for their jurisdiction and it undercut a lot of serious work taking away business for other communities.
>> it was a housing one, yeah, before.
>> is this similar if.
>> there have been several that have been set up in small communities. One -- one purpose corporations I think the creedmore corporation, this would be the only problem probably that they would do. But this has been -- we've had several. Not just one. I -- I don't remember the name of the town on the --
>> yeah, it was some strange also name. We had -- strange little name.
>> actually the name -- there were several in Texas that -- that the town had the same name, which was a surprise to me. So --
>> were we at all approached about whether this is a deal that would come through the Travis County cultural educational facilities corporation?
>> not -- not before we were -- received this request. I think these -- this project was -- was considered by the rollingwood, first they were going to use rollingwood as the issuer town. Rollingwood did not -- decided not to pursue it and so then they went to creedmore. I have discussed this jerry the -- that we do have these corporations and --
>> > especially since so many of these facilities, I'm looking at saint elizabeth's, a lot of others, saint john's, these are all located within Travis County's jurisdiction, I don't see a single one of them that's in creedmore. And I can --
>> there is one facility in creedmore.
>> not compared to 52 others in terms of things here --
>> well, they are doing more economic development in creedmore now, planning a park, so they are planning to grow you know somewhat. So is this one of the facilities that's going into their -- their planning? For future --
>> I -- I think diocese is experiencing a lot of growth, I think creedmore is one of the areas where that's happening. I do think that the -- the particular facility that is -- that is being financed in creedmore, it's -- it's not above -- not a -- not super large portion, actually it's a small portion of the overall transaction.
>> okay.
>> I think we need to -- harvey, again, I'm not at standing in the way, this deal is far beyond that. I think we need to be really aware of what's going on in of sneeze other jurisdictions, see why it is that -- seriously it looks like they are undercutting.
>> on some of the past -- bonds take came in, those involved a small issue situation. That was understandable. This one, of course, is a very large bond issue.
>> 100 million.
>> and it would have been nice to know ahead of time, yes. I would think that the county would probably are a more appropriate place to -- to be involved in a large bond issue like this rather than a small town like creedmore. But that's my personal opinion.
>> next time, creedmore decides to deannex roads and reannex and deannex and reannex, it's like I know where you can find $50,000.
>> this will give creedmore residents an opportunity to throw around some big numbers, won't it?
>> yeah.
>> $100 million. Move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? Other discussion?
>> no.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you, mr. Kyle.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> wish you all well.
>> thank you very much.
>> you bet.
>> mr. Blunt on vacation again? [laughter] oh, I mean -- [laughter] his absence is so conspicuous I had to inquire.
>> well, good to see you.
>> thanks, judge, good to see you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, February 16, 2005 8:38 AM