Travis County Commissioners Court
February 21, 2012 (Agenda)
Item 23
23 is to consider and take appropriate action on t.n.r.'s request to use up to $500,000 from precinct 22001 bond project savings for the quinlan park road improvement project.
>> good morning, judge, steve manila, t.n.r.
this is a request to use savings from the 2001 bond program in precinct 2 to add a center turn lane along quinlan park road in vicinity of a school.
and traffic has been backing up on that two-lane rote rode in the past.
it's creating a safety hazard so we want to move that traffic into a safer area.
traffic can continue unimpeded.
our request is allow us to use 2001 bond money for that purchase.
>> court members, any questions?
mr. Pimplier.
>> yes.
my question, first, is --
>> your full name.
>> I'm sorry.
randy pimplier.
forgive me for not knowing the protocol.
this is my first time, but thank you for your patience.
I'm questioning the using of bond project savings for items that were not on the specific bond, and I'm curious about how that is possible, how it is legal to do that.
maybe there is, I'm probably just uneducated, but my -- I would ask that when we have bond savings and when we have leftover bond money that we would pay off existing debt.
I've been looking into bond debt lately and we -- the counties, the cities, the states are just buried in bond debt.
Travis County has $822 million in bond debt.
Williamson county has 1.2 billion.
city of Austin has 7.5 billion.
we can't just keep borrowing money to do things that we can't afford to do now.
and so that's basically what I wanted to speak out is rather than take this money and spend it elsewhere, let's pay off bond debt and that's basically my comment.
>> [applause]
>> great idea.
>> mr. Manila, what about the use of these funds for that purpose?
>> well, it's okay as far as bond goes.
this is appropriate use of the funds.
in general, there are different situations that we look at.
in some cases it's cheaper to use the money -- use the money for another project than to go borrow money again to pay for it for a particular project improvement.
in this case it really comes down to a sense of urgency for us.
to wait a longer period of time to get funds through the normal budget process with c.o.s which would be the type of funding for this scope, that's going to take another year.
we would like to get through and get there particular improvement done as quickly as we can, and that's not uncommon for a lost projects we come to you for and ask to use bond savings on, there's a sense of urgency to them.
otherwise we would continue to put them on a list and they would compete for funds in a future bond referendum or the budget process for c.o.
requests.
we think this is appropriate use.
>> legally when you finish the projects that are listed, that frees up the funds for other uses.
what we try to do is make sure we use the money for a similar use.
so if there's open space money, then we try to -- and we finish the open space projects, we try to do other open space projects.
I have to say every time we go out to voters with the transportation issues, they pass.
and unfortunately voter just approved $215 million of bonded indebtedness for the next seven years.
so the other thing is with the interest rate being very, very low, if we were to do it with cash, you are talking about an immediate tax rate increase.
and that's what we're looking at.
either you front end load identify or spread it out over time.
>> rye.
I understand, and I understand the urge even side service of us but we're urgencying ourselves to bankruptcy.
I understand about passing the recent bond package, the $215 million, but I don't think the public is very well educated on the whole bond item issue.
my neighbors that I talked to had no idea that Travis County has $885 million in bond debt.
it's my belief that if on the last bond election that where the bond is presented on the ballot, if it would have stated financial information and the taxpayers, the voters could have seen how much debt there is, that that bond package would have passed.
I think it's is same with city of Austin and other the others.
the public is not well educated and I attended some of the citizen bond review economy meetings, advisory committee, I think it's called, when that bond package was being discussed, and everybody at the meetings, I was the only one at the meeting that was questioning why we were borrowing money, why are we borrowing money to do these things.
if we can't go to the taxpayer and present -- I know it takes time, but we can always slow down.
we are -- it appears to me that we are on a fast freight train headed to bankruptcy.
where is the -- what is the plan for all this debt?
it's easy to say let's borrow the money and let's do things now while the interest rates are low, but what is the plan for paying off all this debt?
you know, there's an old adage, you know --
>> Commissioners court he can c.
>> if you give us your email I'll have the planning and budget office send you the plan for the payoff.
it's quite explicit and the payoff period for the current indebtedness is rather short, within the next I believe 15 years.
is that right?
yeah, we'll have to get jessica to provide it.
but it's been presented to the court in open court previously.
and while there has been much in the media about cities and other parts of the country as well as cities and counties in Texas that are in crisis from debt, Travis County isn't one of those.
and the reason why I say this is because we do have a very explicit and demonstrable plan for paying off that dent.
we've done it over and over again and that's why we have the triple a bond rating that we do.
so there are issues with governments borrowing beyond their capacity, but I hope that by providing you this information you would see that we are not one of those.
we are not at all in danger of bankruptcy.
>> well, the other thing is that the ballot language doesn't -- is not intended to serve an educational purpose.
we put together educational materials, though, and in those materials we specifically set out what the annual payment would be, how that would affect debt payments as well as the tax rate.
so that was supposed to be handed out at every public meeting and I had hundreds of copies that I gave residents that inquired about it.
>> okay.
>> if you contact my office, we'll send you a copy of what we used.
>> that would be great because I would like to hand it out to my neighbors because none of my neighbors have any idea.
>> it was there and we have your -- I've got your address.
I'll just send it to you.
>> that would be great and thank you for your comments.
I'm not saying -- I'm not trying to be incriminating to this court, this is a general concerned citizen point of view, we have got to -- we can't always have -- like I tell my 12-year-old son, we can't always have what we want right now.
sometimes we have to put things off and wait because it is a huge amount of money that we are in debt for and I'm glad you all have a plan to pay it off, but I'm also sure that in that 15 years there are going to be other bond issues that come up.
>> that's true.
>> it's like we always have a car payment.
>> that is absolutely true.
because as the judge said to tax today for what is it sense over a 40-year period would need is to tax only those here today for those 40 years' needs and that's probably not intergenerational
>> [inaudible].
>> can't we find ways to cut and say, well, we really need to fix this road, can't we cut other places to pay for that rather than always borrowing the money to do that?
>> yes, that is one option.
>> Commissioner Huber.
>> I just wanted to expand just very briefly on what Commissioner Eckhardt said because I think you bring up a very fair point.
we -- and public finance is extremely complicated.
the ability to have the revenues when you need them for the appropriate times.
and counties by and large have the greater part of our budgets are unfunded mandates so that we have to be able to plan ahead for the moneys needed that we are required by law to provide the services to the community.
those who have gotten in trouble don't have as good plans as -- and programs and policies in place as Travis County.
Travis County has an aaa bond rating.
it is a dynamic plan.
like you are saying, we need more things in the future.
that's taken into consideration of what we already have in the past when we move forward on that.
but you bring up a good point that I think is worth everyone paying attention to and that is in need to educate.
and it is complex, but we do need to educate better.
and I'm always looking for ways to educate the voters better because then they can make their own rational decisions and send us good messages.
so I'm open to that as well and I did want to say just on this particular project, this was in my precinct before redistricting and it has been an ongoing serious safety problem there.
so thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> move approval of 23.
>> second.
>> any more discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank you very much.
>> thank you.
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