“Any way you slice and dice, the precinct commissioners will have to make decisions of how to prioritize,” Rahman said. Another $200 million for neigh- borhood drainage would help get the county’s current $600 million-plus drainage program across the nish line, Rahman said, with 80%-90% of the projects to reduce ooding risk for around 4,000 structures set to be completed by 2024. Improving street drainage provides ood protection for structures outside the ood plain. “The structures, the pipes, the inlets you have [for] the ditches in your neighborhood [do] not have the capacity to handle more than 2-3 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour [period],” he said. Additionally, $100 million for road rehabilitation would go toward repairing roads in poor to fair con- dition; roads need attention before they deteriorate so much to require rebuilding, Rahman said. Rebuilding a road can cost six to 10 times more than rehabilitating it, he said. Of the remaining money, $200 mil- lion would go to partnership fund- ing with local entities; $50 million would fund multimodal transit, such as sidewalks; and $50 million would fund Vision Zero—a program to reduce tra c-related fatalities by re-engineering layouts of high-in- jury corridors. Parks and public safety The $200 million for parks and trails planned in the bond would be more than the $95 million and $60 million for parks in the 2007 and 2015 bonds, respectively, combined. Ramos said the commissioners have already spent their allocated money for parks and will be unable to fund any projects next year if the bond does not pass unless they pull from their general funds. He said
the park funds could help address unequal access to parks or parks not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. “Any time there is potential of more funding for parks and green space, we are in support,” said Beth White, president and CEO of the Houston Parks Board, in a statement. “We look forward to learning more about how the county bond might continue ... connecting people to parks.” Meanwhile, the $100 million bond for public safety facilities could fund capital improvement projects. The Harris County Sheri’s O ce pro- posed four to Commissioners Court on Aug. 2, including a facility to train rst responders on ood and swift-water rescue operations and another facility to simulate active- shooter scenarios. Sheri’s o ce spokesperson Jason Spencer said there has been ongo- ing dialogue for years with county departments about facility needs. “[The bond does not] address every need that we have, but we also recognize the need to be good stewards of resources and tax dol- lars,” Spencer said. “At the end of the day, we feel like [the bond] does make a signi cant appreciable improvement in our ability to pro- tect the community.” Financial impact, timing concerns If approved, the bonds would lead to a tax rate increase of $0.012 per $100 valuation, Ramos said. For a homeowner whose house is valued at $300,000, the bond will cost $32 a year after homestead exemptions. The life of the $1.2 billion bond is 25 years, during which time the county would sell bonds incrementally to about a dozen nancial institutions. Ramsey and Cagle have referred to the bond as a tax increase during court meetings with Cagle saying Aug.
2 this is not the time to tax the public. “[The public] had to tighten their belt coming out of the pandemic,” Cagle said. “We should do the same. This is not the time [for a bond election].” Ramos said because the county has continually paid o its debt ser- vice above what was required, the $32 a year would not increase taxes by a corresponding amount for most taxpayers. As the debt from previ- ous bonds is retired, the county can replace it with new debt and keep the tax rate low. “Taxes for Harris County resi- dents will continue to go down over the next decade, barring something unforeseen,” he said at an Aug. 18 meeting. Ramsey and Cagle both ques- tioned the timing and transparency of the bond. Cagle cited the 23 meet- ings held during the Harris County Flood Control District’s $2.5 billion bond in 2018. “We came to the public with 23 watershed meetings and told them what we were going to spend it on,” Cagle told Community Impact Newspa- per . “So the public is in favor of a tax increase when they get to see what ... the increase is going to go [to].” Carl Apple, director of commu- nications for the county engineer, said outreach for the bond includes 24 community meetings. County o cials also cited higher voter turnout for elections in even-num- ber years. County elections o ce’s data showed the 2018 election had a 52.86% voter turnout rate compared to 16.72% in 2019. “We’re giving this bond package the full opportunity to be seen and heard by the voters,” Garcia told Com- munity Impact Newspaper .
Previous bond votes
A higher percentage of voters approved of the county’s 2015 bond than in 2007, which also saw a proposition fail.
Passed Did not pass
2007 BOND
5
1
Prop. 1: $190M
1
4
in road bonds
$630M total proposed
2
Prop. 2: $95M
in park bonds
Prop. 3: $195M for central processing and adult detention center Prop. 4: $80M for medical examiner’s forensic center 3 4
2
3
Prop. 5: $70M for family law center $435M approved 5
2015 BOND Prop. 1: $700M
3 4
2
1
in road bonds
$848M approved $848M total proposed 1
Prop. 2: $60M
2
in park bonds
3 Prop. 3: $24M for animal shelter Prop. 4: $64M for ood control 4
The county is holding 24 public bond meetings. Visit www.harriscounty2022 bond.org for more information. Informing the public
IN PERSON
Sept. 29: 6 p.m. at Tomball Community Center, 221 Market St., Tomball Oct. 3: 6 p.m. at Shirley Acres, 217 Woerner Road, Houston
V I RTUAL
SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY OFFICE OF THE ELECTIONS ADMINISTRATOR COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER Oct. 13: online from noon-1 p.m. Oct. 18-20: online from noon-1 p.m., 6-7 p.m.
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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TOMBALL MAGNOLIA EDITION • SEPTEMBER 2022
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