Austin Rail Advocates Seek Bond Vote on $400 Million Line

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DALLAS – A coalition of transportation advocates in Austin, Texas, wants the city council to include funding for a $397.5 million light rail starter project as part of a proposed November road bond referendum.

The proposal from Central Austin Community Development Corp., formally submitted to the council on June 1, said the 5.3-mile line from downtown to north Austin would be the first segment of a light rail system that could eventually connect the state capitol complex with Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The city's Urban Transportation Commission voted in early May to ask the council to put the light rail proposal on the November ballot, which may also include the $720 million mobility bond package proposed by Mayor Steve Adler.

The council will consider the bond proposals at a public hearing on June 14. The deadline in Texas for putting a general obligation bond measure on the November ballot is Aug. 22.

Austin's Capital Metro currently operates the 32-mile, nine-station Metrorail commuter line between downtown and the northern suburbs.

J.D. Gins, one of the transportation commissioners who supported the rail plan, said Austin's traffic congestion is bad and will get worse unless the city takes bold action soon.

"We need to put on our big city pants and start making big city decisions about this," Gins said. "People aren't going to stop moving to Austin, people aren't going to stop being stuck in traffic, and it's never going to be cheaper."

The proposed initial rail route is identical to the one in a 2000 bond package that lost by fewer than 2,000 votes after a contentious campaign. Austin voters in 2014 overwhelmingly defeated a $1 billion urban rail bond proposal.

Gins said the landslide 2014 defeat was due to voter dissatisfaction with the specific proposal on the ballot.

"They're not against rail, they're not against rail planning," Gins said. "They were against that rail plan."

Andrew Clements, a spokesman for the Central Austin CDC, said November's request for light rail bonds could be limited to $120 million for initial engineering and route design, with another bond election in 2018 to cover construction costs.

"We're behind the eight ball and behind the times anyway, so the sooner we can get the ball rolling the better," he said.

The $720 million bond package outlined by Adler on May 26 would finance street upgrades and a smart traffic light system that could be managed to improve traffic flow. He said the upgrades could reduce traffic congestion along major corridors by as much as 50%.

A proposal last week by state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, to finance an expansion of Interstate 35 through the city with revenues from managed toll lanes would free up $500 million of bonding capacity that the city had planned to devote to the highway project, Adler said.

"We finally get to decide once and for all whether we are going to do what we usually do or do what we know we must," he said.

Austin has $1.47 billion of triple-A rated debt and $111 billion of assessed property.

Adding 2 cents to the city's property tax rate of $4.814 per $1,000 of assessed value would bring the available bonding capacity to $720 million, he said.

The higher tax rate would add $5 per month to the average residential property tax bill, Adler said.

"We can't be focused on saving a few dollars on property taxes," he told members of the Austin Chamber of Commerce last week. "If we're serious about affordability in this city, then we need to focus on housing and transportation costs. That's why Austin is unaffordable to so many."

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