Natives getting restless about $1 billion in proposed local bond debt

Hat's off to our friends at Texas Insider for pointing out this development from the Comptroller:

The [Comptroller's] updated page includes information for about 70 local bond elections, ranging from a $1.8 million bond election for the Chico school district to a $737.5 million bond package for the Lewisville school district. Local elections will be held on May 6. [...] 

The Comptroller’s office also released the Debt-at-a-Glance tool with updated debt totals and trends for Texas cities, counties, school districts and community college districts.

With that, word has been spreading lately of some gargantuan local debt proposals brought forth by the Hays and the Round Rock ISDs. We thought we'd use the Comptroller's new debt-finding tool and the perennial listing of bond proposals and see what Austin-area taxpayers may be on the hook for should these items pass. See below -- it appears Central Texas voters will have nearly a billion-dollars' worth of proposals to sift through.

As always, if we missed anything or you have a differing opinion than what is being presented, please make use of our comments section.

• Hays Consolidated ISD: $189,850,000 for new schools (proposition 1); and $60,150,000 for tech, security, and maintenance updates (proposition 2)
• City of Lakeway: $23,065,000 for a police facility
• Round Rock ISD: $381,700,000 for school improvements (proposition 1), $133,600,000 for new schools (proposition 2), and $56,800,000 for arts and athletics programs (proposition 3).
• City of San Marcos: $17,450,000 for public safety facilities (proposition 1), and $14,750,000 for a city library (proposition 2).
• San Marcos Consolidated ISD: $107,300,000 for new schools, additions, transportation, safety, and security.
• TOTAL proposed bond debt: $984,665,000

All elections are set for Saturday, May 6, 2017.

There may be a reason why Round Rock ISD and Hays Consolidated taxpayers are the ones most upset with the proposals. Aside from tax appraisal districts increasing homestead assessments by the maximum amount allowed by state law in many cases, as well as the large price tags on the proposals, Williamson County (where the bulk of RRISD's taxpayers reside) and Hays County are among the highest debt-shouldering counties in Texas according to Debt at a Glance. Given, they are also experiencing the highest rates of population growth as Austin continues to boom, but here are the numbers without further commentary:

Hays County:
Tax-Supported Debt: $313,635,000
Revenue-Supported Debt: $19,200,000
Total Debt: $332,835,000
Population: 194,739

Williamson County:
Total Debt: $966,599,942
Population: 508,514

Compare that to Travis County, with $695M in tax-supported debt spread out across 1.2 million residents and the tax burden per taxpayer is becoming increasingly high in Austin's suburbs and exurbs outside of Travis. With tax statements having just arrived amid a housing bubble (a seller's market, for sure) the Tracker predicts this year's bond debt elections will draw in more interest and more political activity than usual.



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Image credit: Patrick McGuinness, Facebook.com, commenting on the "piggish" bond proposal.