Harris County Commissioners are set to vote — TODAY — on approving a $450 million bond referendum that would go before voters in November:
Harris County voters could be asked in November to approve a $450 million bond issue — one of the biggest in county history — if county officials give the go-ahead for a referendum today.
If passed, $200 million would go for road building and repairs, $150 million for parks projects, $65 million for building a new Family Law Center and $35 million for renovating and expanding the juvenile detention center on West Dallas.
Recent bond issues have not raised the county’s tax rate because increased property values and taxes on new properties covered bond debt. But three members of Commissioners Court say the new bonds likely would lead to an increase in the tax rate.
“If you pass issues like this, tax increases are certainly possible — probable — in my opinion,” said Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, who represents the eastern part of the county, said she is not convinced that county residents want a referendum on bonds that would lead to tax rate hikes.
“My bottom line is that I’m not going to increase the tax rate,” said Garcia, a first-term commissioner who will be seeking re-election next year. “My sense of the current climate is that people don’t want increased taxes.”
Good for the Chronicle‘s Bill Murphy, getting this story out, but the meeting is this morning! I am on the news alert email list for Judge Eckels — it’s the only email alert thing I could find on the county page — and I did get an email alert yesterday…announcing that Judge Eckels had shown his appreciation for law enforcement, fire and volunteer agencies by distributing over 8,000 Astros tickets for three end-of-July games. Not one peep about a meeting dealing with such a big issue.
How much longer will these elected officials, who are little kings (or czarina) in their kingdoms, keep the public in the dark? Why aren’t these meetings ever held outside of downtown? Why is there not a big media blitz to promote these meetings? We are talking a half of a billion dollars and the meeting is THIS MORNING! There is nothing on the front page of the Harris County website that says, “Meeting July 26 — up for discussion: a half billion dollar bond referendum.”
Why not? The cynical side of me says it’s because they really don’t want us there voicing any dissenting opinions.
UPDATE: Via Sedosi, I see that Bill Murphy’s story now says the bond referendum was voted down. Excellent!
