02.13.13
County Commissioners starting process for a November bond election
From the Community Impact, Wilco commissioners considering possible bond election.
The Williamson County Commissioners Court discussed the possibility of calling for a voter-approved bond election during a Feb. 12 meeting.
The commissioners were going to meet with city leaders in their precincts to discuss what major projects and priorities should be considered for the potential bond election.
“It is my personal feeling that we need to explore … the possibilities of moving forward with a bond issue for the county, which would be for roads, bridges, parks and the possibility of even facilities,” County Judge Dan Gattis said.
The last time the county called for a bond election was in 2006 in the amount of $250 million.Gattis said he was going to put an action item on the agenda for the next meeting—Feb. 19—for commissioners to vote on whether to form a bond committee, which would make contact with the county’s cities about prioritizing the projects a bond issue would cover.
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Projects the county is looking at include parks and roads, Gattis said.
“We’ve got master plans on parkland that we bought with the last bond issue … and we’ll need bond money now to build those parks out and make them accessible to the public,” he said. “All of that needs to be followed through with.”
He said he could not name specific road projects yet but that the court is interested in seeking funding for improvements to north-south and east-west traffic flow and to get the cities to work together and with the county on those projects.
“There’s a lot to do in this county,” Gattis said. “The way we’re growing, there’s plenty to do. The question is, ‘What can we afford? What does the public want us to get done?’”
If commissioners moved forward with seeking the bond election, they said they hoped to have the members of the bond committee appointed by the court’s March 5 meeting to give that committee as much time as possible to get any propositions ready in time for the November general election.
Gattis’ right wing won’t be happy with this. But now is a great time to borrow, with interest rates so low. And with Williamson County’s rapid growth there are likely plenty of needed projects to spend the money on. More than likely, this has more to do with keeping the local contractors/donors working, then anything else.