DALLAS — Travis County, Texas, commissioners said Tuesday they want to reduce a proposed road and parks bond package from $550 million to $200 million before asking voters to approve it.
A whittled-down proposal could be on the November ballot, along with a separate proposition for $300 million of bonds to finance a new civil courthouse in downtown Austin.
“This is a hefty amount of money,” said County Judge Samuel Biscoe. “In fact, it would be more than any bond initiative that we’ve ever dealt with in the past. But there appears to be need, with the growth potential, where we need things and roads in place to take care of a lot of things.”
Travis County voters approved $65.2 million of bonds for roads, $62.3 million for parks, and $23.5 million for jail facilities in 2005.
Biscoe said the transportation, parks, and courthouse proposals probably would be separate issues on the ballot.
Commissioners will meet Friday to review a proposed schedule for appointing a citizens advisory committee to develop a list of recommended projects. The commissioners are expected to decide in August or September which projects will be included in the bond referendum.
The tentative list of projects outlined by Steve Manilla, executive manager of the county’s Department of Transportation and Natural Resources, includes $295.5 million of roads projects.
The transportation portion also includes $82.9 million of pass-through projects in which the county and possibly some of its cities would build roads and then be reimbursed by the state over 10 to 20 years, based on traffic.
Proposed parks spending of $95.3 million includes $18 million for the acquisition of 870 acres of open space along the Pedernales River and $20 million for green space throughout the county.
The preliminary project list also includes drainage, pedestrian, and bicycle safety efforts.
Manilla said the list has been developed over five years. He said he wants to be able to provide the advisory committee with the best available information on all the projects.
“To reduce this down is going to take a good amount of effort,” he told the commissioners. “I would also like to emphasize it is a very dynamic list. You can always think of changes that need to be made.”
“We would like to have it as close to perfect as we can get it by the time the bond advisory committee is put into place so they don’t have to keep adding to the list as they go through their process,” Manilla said.
He added that he would meet with local government officials and private developers to determine if they are willing to help finance the proposed bond-funded projects or provide easements. Those questions must be answered before the citizens committee begins to evaluate the projects, Manilla said.
“Whether or not we go forward is going to be dependent upon how much they are willing to commit themselves to put into the project, either to right-of-way deed indications or financial, or however means that they have available to them,” Manilla said.
Travis County’s $631 million of outstanding GO bonds are rated triple-A by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s.
