DALLAS — Texas cities, counties and schools are placing nearly $4 billion of bond measures on the November ballot that will decide the presidential and statewide elections.
By far, the largest proposals will come from Harris County, including ballots for $1.9 billion from the Houston Independent School District, $410 million from the city of Houston and $425 million from the Houston Community College District.
Voters in the Austin area will also see a bond-heavy ballot, with $385 million from the city and $215 million from Travis County.
In addition to those measures, Austin voters may be asked to approve a five-cent tax increase for a $250 million hospital that would be part of a new University of Texas medical school.
In El Paso, the City Council is asking voters to consider $473 million of projects that would include aquatics centers, improvements to the zoo and other so-called quality of life infrastructure.
North of Fort Worth, voters in the Northwest Independent School District will be asked to approve $255 million of bonds for new schools.
In West Texas, Midland and neighboring Ector County independent school districts will ask for more than $300 million of bond authority.
Houston ISD’s bond proposal is the largest in history from a Texas school district.
If approved, the bonds would pay to renovate or rebuild most of the district’s high schools, remodel several elementary and middle schools, and upgrade campus technology.
Servicing the new debt would require a nearly five-cent property tax rate increase, starting in 2014.
Hanging over all the bond proposals, particularly in Houston and Austin, is the fear that voters in a high-turnout election will reject all the measures in an anti-tax, anti-government mood as represented by the conservative “Tea Party.”
Tea Party influence was demonstrated when Ted Cruz, a Tea Party favorite, upset Lieut. Gov. David Dewhurst to win the Republican Party nomination for the U.S. Senate on July 31.
Cruz will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot and is expected to win election in the state, where Democrats have not won a statewide election in 18 years.
“I think the voters are going to most likely turn down all bond referendums on the November ballot,” Houston council member Mike Sullivan said at Wednesday’s meeting, where the bond proposal was approved.
“There is very little sentiment for more tax dollars to be spent right now on virtually anything,” Sullivan said. “You can look at the Cruz campaign and the way that that election turned out, and there’s a message there. People are fed up. People are tired of excessive spending.”
At the same time, the population of Texas continues to grow as the economy gains momentum from new forms of energy production and a recovering housing market.
Officials in the Midland-Odessa area where the school bonds will be considered said schools are quickly outgrowing their capacities.
