Post by Logan on Jun 27, 2016 6:07:15 GMT -6
I was out of town late last month when Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Central Texas Mayor Kirk Watson (well, OK, state Sen. Watson) did a sort of transportation two-step. Even from a time zone away, I had to admire the choreography.
Watson led off at a May 26 luncheon by saying that the massive (but as yet only minimally funded) improvements planned for Interstate 35, at a potential cost of $4.6 billion, could be paid for by a witches’ brew of money: toll bonds, money promised to the community by our local toll agency, state money saved if the city of Austin takes over maintenance of state-owned streets in town like North Lamar Boulevard, contributions by counties along I-35, even a novel “credit swap” where the city would borrow money at the lower interest available to it, and the Texas Department of Transportation would pay it back.
Conspicuously missing was general obligation bond money from the city of Austin, the sort that requires a bond election and gets paid back by property tax revenue (although that credit swap thing would seem to be a cousin of that). Adler in previous months had talked about the city putting bonds on the November ballot to help pay for expanding I-35.
Then, a few hours after Watson’s luncheon, Adler gave a speech in which he unveiled what seemed at the time a crazy-large $720 million transportation bond proposal for November, but one that would provide no city money for I-35. Instead, Adler said, all of that $720 million (almost five times larger than any transportation bond proposal ever approved by Austinites) would go to other city street projects, mostly for makeovers of major arterials that would make them user-friendly for bikes, pedestrians and transit buses as well as ripe for the denser development of the sort that city leaders see as the centerpiece of Austin’s future.
Read more: www.mystatesman.com/news/news/local/watson-adler-look-to-expand-i-35-without-city-bond/nrnMN/
Watson led off at a May 26 luncheon by saying that the massive (but as yet only minimally funded) improvements planned for Interstate 35, at a potential cost of $4.6 billion, could be paid for by a witches’ brew of money: toll bonds, money promised to the community by our local toll agency, state money saved if the city of Austin takes over maintenance of state-owned streets in town like North Lamar Boulevard, contributions by counties along I-35, even a novel “credit swap” where the city would borrow money at the lower interest available to it, and the Texas Department of Transportation would pay it back.
Conspicuously missing was general obligation bond money from the city of Austin, the sort that requires a bond election and gets paid back by property tax revenue (although that credit swap thing would seem to be a cousin of that). Adler in previous months had talked about the city putting bonds on the November ballot to help pay for expanding I-35.
Then, a few hours after Watson’s luncheon, Adler gave a speech in which he unveiled what seemed at the time a crazy-large $720 million transportation bond proposal for November, but one that would provide no city money for I-35. Instead, Adler said, all of that $720 million (almost five times larger than any transportation bond proposal ever approved by Austinites) would go to other city street projects, mostly for makeovers of major arterials that would make them user-friendly for bikes, pedestrians and transit buses as well as ripe for the denser development of the sort that city leaders see as the centerpiece of Austin’s future.
Read more: www.mystatesman.com/news/news/local/watson-adler-look-to-expand-i-35-without-city-bond/nrnMN/