From: www.lubbockonline.com
By Matt Dotray / A-J Media
Lubbock County Commissioners voted 3-2 to have a nearly $100 million bond election put to a vote in May.
Citizens will be voting yes or no to authorize the county to issue $99.6 million in debt to fund transportation improvements throughout the county. May elections, which are generally city and school board elections, tend to have lower voter turnout than November elections. The City of Lubbock and Lubbock ISD do not have any scheduled elections, so this will be the only item on the ballot in the county’s largest city and school district.
Commissioners Jason Corley and Chad Seay voted against having a bond election in just a few months. Seay, prior to the final vote, called to table the decision until a later date — to wait and possibly place it on the November ballot. That motion failed 2-3 before the vote to have the election in May passed on a 3-2 vote. There was no discussion among the commissioners before either vote.
Corley, who voted with Seay, said after the meeting they wanted the bond election delayed so they could have at least one budget cycle under their belts. Corley and Seay, along with County Judge Curtis Parrish, were sworn into office just last month.
“It needs to happen,” Corley said about the bond election. “But we absolutely need to get through one budget cycle before we do anything. A lot of my constituents contacted me and said, ‘wait a minute, you just got in the door. What’s the rush?’ I can’t act on what I don’t absolutely know.”
The $99.6 million outlined in the bond election is for the projects defined in the county’s newly adopted Transportation Improvement Program as the most urgent road needs — totaling 120 miles of county road.
Among those are roughly $38 million estimated to widen Woodrow Road from Slide Road to U.S. 87, a need long discussed by the county and in local campaigns. Other urgent improvements are for FM 1294 in Shallowater, Walnut Street in Idalou, CR 6400 in East Lubbock, Alcove Avenue in Wolfforth, and County Roads 7300 and 3600 near Ransom Canyon.
Commissioners Bill McCay and Gilbert Flores said it’s a public safety issue that should have been addressed a long time ago.
“We’re talking about public safety, we’re talking about lives,” McCay said. “We’ve been made aware of the need, we know the need. The longer we wait, the longer the public will be traveling on roads that aren’t as safe as we’d like for them to be … Time is of the essence.”
Commissioners on Monday reiterated the county intends to issue these bonds without increasing the tax rate. The current plan, according to Jennifer Davidson, the county’s public works director, would be to issue roughly $5 million in bonds the first year to get the design and engineering done for the first road projects, and complete some small caliche projects.
Actual construction wouldn’t begin for a few years — including Woodrow Road. The Lubbock Metropolitan Planning Organization has already paid for the design and engineering of Woodrow Road at a cost of about $2.5 million.
“What we did was put the needs of Lubbock County, and Lubbock’s growth, into our constituents’ hands,” said Flores. “We’re showing them what’s needed, but it’s not something that’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day. Within the next five years, ten years, there’s a lot of things that need to be improved… I’m just hoping and praying the citizens understand what we did, and why we did it. It’s really up to them now to decided what they want to do.”
Something that’s come up a few times when talking about this bond election is the current state legislative session. A-J Media has been told part of the urgency is possible decisions to come from the state level, although nobody has pointed to any specifics.
Most of the public comments ahead of the meeting were in favor of the bond election. About 10 people addressed the commissioners — two citizens spoke against the bond election, and the rest were in favor. Representatives from the City of Wolfforth, Lubbock Cooper ISD and the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce urged the county to move forward with this bond election.
“When I became superintendent five years ago, the very first thing that came to my attention was how dangerous Woodrow Road had become,” said Keith Bryant, superintendent of Lubbock Cooper ISD. “For student safety, for the lives of our children, this bond is going to be very, very much a necessity.”
As for how these projects can be funded without increasing the county’s 34.8 cents per $100 property valuation tax rate, the county says it’ll issue the bonds as the county’s growth is able to pay it off. The county’s debt from the new detention center will also roll off in about seven years, which either frees up more funds for road projects and/or allows the county to reduce the tax rate.
The May election will take place Saturday, May 4, with early voting starting April 22.