Good evening.

My name is Macy Hill.

We're gonna get started.

If y'all would like to find a seat.

I am council member for District 7 and have the honor to um kick us off this evening for our bond and charter amendment QA.

We're gonna have experts come up and talk to you about the election that's coming up.

Yep, are you ready?

I'm gonna start right there.

Okay.

I'm gonna turn it over to you and let you walk through the bond.

All right.

All right.

Well, thank you all for joining uh for today's uh 20 or the 2026 bond and charter election education meetings.

Um if we we will have an opportunity to go ahead and um allow individuals to go out to the rest of the tables if they happen to have any questions following the presentation.

Uh there will also be an opportunity for QA.

Um, so as mentioned, uh this is the bond and charter election.

Today we'll be running through the purpose of the presentation as well as the 2026 bond program, run through the purpose, the program summary, the sample ballot, as well as the bond propositions themselves.

We'll dive into the charter amendments that is part of the special election on May 2nd, as well as the upcoming schedule with again um opportunity for a question and answer.

We are live streaming this presentation, um, so it is available for folks over um in YouTube world.

And so they can also happen to have any questions.

So, with that, when we go into QA, we do have some microphones and we'll be asking that if you have questions, um, we'll offer you the opportunity to use the microphone as well.

So, the purpose of today's presentation is really to provide information related to the 2026 bond program as well as the charter amendments uh to offer the opportunity to ask questions as well as opportunity for future public education meetings.

So, when it comes to the 2026 bond program, uh all of you may have received a bond booklet uh as you are entering.

If you have not, and if you don't, if you don't have one in hand, a physical copy, uh feel free to wave any of us down.

We can provide a couple of copies.

I have a numerous up here up front.

Um, but we also have the bond book and a QR code.

Um, so you can take out your phone and you can easily take a like a photo and use it so you have a digital copy that you could share.

Um, either text it to your friends, your family, or even your neighbors.

So, with that, we'll go ahead and get started with a very short uh video on the 2026 bond program.

Every four years, the city prepares a bond program.

One way of funding large capital projects such as roads, parks, libraries, and public facilities that are appropriate for long-term financing.

During this election, you might notice language on the ballot that says this is a tax increase.

This is new language mandated statewide for all bond elections.

However, here in Fort Worth, we've structured the bond package so that we don't anticipate a tax increase.

The City of Fort Worth's 2026 bond program, totaling 845 million, is organized into several propositions.

Each proposition outlines a set of projects that could be funded through bonds, pending voter authorization.

Proposition A proposes 511 million dollars for streets and mobility infrastructure projects.

It represents the largest portion of the 26 bond package and is intended to fund long-term transportation projects.

The proposal includes funds for 12 major roadways.

The largest amount of money in Proposition A, roughly 328 million will go towards rehabilitating our streets.

Other funds will go towards intersections, bridges, traffic signals, street lights, adding sidewalks, and improving safety for street crossings around our schools.

Proposition B includes 185 million dollars for parks, recreation, open spaces, including land acquisition, facility improvements, and trail enhancements.

Park improvements may include renovations to existing community park areas, as well as development of new outdoor park amenities.

Some projects in the proposition include a new outdoor pool, renovations and expansion of some athletic complexes, provide more open space areas throughout the city, and replacement of an aging community center.

Proposition C allocates 14 million dollars for public library projects.

This will include remodeling three of our existing locations.

Proposition D provides 10 million dollars for affordable housing initiatives across the city.

This proposition would provide funding aimed at creating new affordable home ownership and rental housing opportunities, specifically for households earning up to 120% of the city's area median income.

Activities under this proposition may include land acquisition and site preparation, construction of affordable housing, construction of infrastructure to support affordable housing, home repair programs, and loans and grants for affordable housing.

Proposition E proposes $64 million for police fire and emergency communications facilities, including new construction and renovations to existing buildings.

These improvements support long-term operational projects for the public safety departments.

Proposition F allocates $59.8 million for a new upgraded facility for our residents and animals, which would replace the Chuck and Brenda Silcox Animal Care and Adoption Center.

This proposition would fund the construction of an upgraded shelter with expanded veterinary facilities.

Also including new modern kennels with natural light and upgraded play yards for animal enrichment.

The bond election is scheduled for Saturday, May 2nd, 2026, with early voting available between Monday, April 20th, and the following Tuesday, April 28th.

For facts and resources, visit Fort Worth Texas.gov/slash 2026 bond.

All right.

So if you've been part of the 2026 bond program development, this particular schedule may look familiar to you.

But for context, the 2026 bond program has actually been in development since 2025, as far back as even March 4th, where the city first proposed the bond list to City Council.

From then on August 5th, City Council then approved that proposed list to go out for that first phase of community engagement.

And during that time, we were able to engage with all the various residents.

We're able to kind of detail all the various propositions, the overall bond capacity to really dive into what the residents, you know, thought about various propositions, some of the feedback.

So we had that continuous public feedback all the way through December 31st.

So between October and November, we actually had uh citywide bond meetings as mentioned, where we were gathering that public feedback.

We closed the public comments on December 31st, and in January, uh we presented basically that proposed final project list to City Council, uh, where we were able to just kind of finalize and everything so that um on February 10th, City Council was able to meet and order the bond election for that final list that we'll be presenting today.

Um, so just some quick engagement numbers.

Uh, just really it was really exciting to be able to say that we received 329 submitted comments, and this was both through in-person email feedback as well as 188 uh comments through that balancing act.

As you may recall, if you happen to use that particular tool, we're able to see like based off of the overall capacity, what projects, what propositions, how you would have liked to see each proposition uh funded.

And so from there, uh, just as an overall, we had 18,220 website views, 260 residents attended over 11 council district meetings.

Uh we had 1,109 YouTube views, as well as, as I mentioned before, 177 balancing act submissions.

So all of this led to that final 2026 bond program that we're presenting today.

So we have a total of six propositions.

Proposition A, for example, streets and mobility infrastructure, uh, with the final funding at 511,480,700.

Um, you know, public library, for example, proposition C at public library improvements at 14,586,000 and so forth, as you could see here.

Um, what you may note is that the total bond program is set at 845 million.

And this is a result of that, you know, resident feedback.

Um, in the first phase of the bond program, uh, the bond capacity total amount was at 840 million.

And in working with city council, um, and really just hearing that resident feedback, uh, you may you may find that of proposition D, affordable housing was actually increased from 5 million to 10 million, um, once again, as a result of the overall engagement.

Uh so now what you may also see is that there's also an estimated public art funding baked within each one of these propositions.

And this really leads back to the public art ordinance.

And so, for example, each proposition includes funding that can be used for public art specifically related to one or more of the projects in that proposition.

So, for example, proposition A, Streets and Mobility Infrastructure, um, can have up to 1% in public art funding for the amount shown here.

You can also find that propositions B, C, E, and F have public art funding up to 2% of the projects as shown here.

And then affordable housing is set at 0%.

Again, this is aligning back to uh the idea that one, it's affordable housing, for example, is a citywide uh proposition, also tied to the way that public art ordinances is set up and that uh the public art would be delivered where it is available and viewable based off of the capital project as it's being delivered.

All this to say is that the estimated public art funding is 10,752,000, as shown here.

And this is all based off of an upcoming ordinance amendment that is just some technical updates that will be made to the public art ordinance.

So really want to dive into how exactly does bond funding work.

Well, the city property tax rate as it exists today is 67 cents per 100 valuation.

That 67 cents is broken up into two separate buckets.

One bucket is the maintenance and operation, and that is that that 52 and a quarter penny.

The debt bucket is at 14 cents and three-quarters of a penny.

So these two are kind of thought through in like two separate ways.

So for one, operational maintenance, when you see me standing here in front of you today, I am funded by the general fund that actually falls under that operation and maintenance.

When you go out to say a facility, so we're here at a community center.

This is also part of the operation maintenance that would come out of the particular bucket at the top, which is OM.

Now, debt, that 14 and three-quarters of a penny ties back to the city's debt service.

And I'm gonna walk through these three bullet points.

So one, a bond election is a way for the community to vote on measures that allows the city to borrow funding for larger capital projects.

Again, that all ties back to that debt right here, and how the city can allocate that city property tax rate.

A portion of the city property taxes are set aside to pay for the bond programs and other city debt.

Fort Worth has historically and in the 20 and for the 2026 bond program, structured its bond package to work within the existing city property tax rate, so that the bonds are planned to be fully repaid without increasing the city property tax rate associated with this debt.

So again, a lot of this ties back to that 14 and three-quarters of a penny that allows a city to set the bond capacity, as well as use that funding to be able to pay for the bonds into the future.

So, just some context here with the sample ballot.

So this is what one would expect if one goes out to go vote for any proposition.

Each one of these propositions are voted individually.

So there's a total of six propositions, and sort of the what you'll see is that you'll either be asked to vote for or against.

You'll also see that this is for the city of Fort Worth, Texas Special Election for the proposition A in this example.

And within this paragraph, the first sentence that we have to have in every single proposition when it comes to bond-related propositions, and this is mandated by the state, is in all caps, this is a tax increase.

Now, the purpose why you're also here is just to have that information, right?

The information that the way that the city of Fort Worth structures its bond program, in that we do not, and going back to that previous slide, um, anticipate increasing the city property tax rate associated with that debt of 14 and three quarters of a penny.

But again, by law, we have to have that in all capital letters.

You'll also find that the issuance of the amount of the proposition.

So in this case, proposition A at 511,480,700, and it will also inform you into what proposition it's for.

So in this case, for streets and mobility infrastructure.

You'll see the same thing for proposition B in that amount, going back to that summary table, and so on and so forth.

So now we're gonna dive into the bond propositions.

Now, the video did a great job of really diving into some of the highlights related to the bond program itself as proposed in this final amount.

Um, but just as a refresher, proposition A, there is an exhibit on each one of these slides as applicable.

And this is a little difficult to read, but we do have them printed out and available for you to walk through and actually see them like a little bit closer.

Uh we also have these particular exhibits shown in the bond program itself, the bond book.

Um we both have we both have it both in electronic format as well as in this physical format.

So this all relates back to streets, in which related to construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation.

It has projects within intersections, sidewalks, signals, traffic and signal control, street lighting.

Again, for that 511,480,700.

Uh, what you'll find too in the bond book itself is that major and neighborhood streets are listed individually for each one of these projects.

There's also what we call bucket categories that allow for sort of that flexibility when it comes to say traffic signal controls, the street lighting, as well as like railroad crossings, for example.

So for proposition B, we have park, recreation, open space acquisition and improvements for 185 million, 140,000.

And this kind of spans quite a bit of relation to community parks.

Again, the bond program actually details which community parks are in there, botanic garden infrastructure, aquatic facility, athletic complex, Fort Worth Zoo utilities.

You may all you'll also find that the open space is included in this in the 2026 bond program.

If you've been part of previous bond cycle or the previous bond cycle, uh open space is actually a standalone proposition, but now within 2026 bond program, it is included as part of proposition B.

Next is proposition C for public library improvements.

And this is for 14,586,000.

And this is for the relocation of the Fort Worth History Center, the renovation of the Southwest Regional Library, the renovation of Diamond Hill Jarvis Library.

For proposition D, this is affordable housing.

Affordable housing set aside in the amount of 10 million dollars.

And the idea behind this is that this is the city would look at these dollars to then leverage.

So for every dollar the city would put in, there'd be a leveraged amount that would go for could that could go towards any of the purposes as shown above, but specifically towards like land acquisition, the construction of housing and neighborhood infrastructure to support affordable housing, funding affordable housing and home repair programs, as well as funding loans and grants for affordable housing purposes.

You'll see the little asterisk on there, and a lot of this is as permitted by law.

This is a newer or this is a new bond proposition to the city of Fort Worth.

And so we would definitely still be like learning along the way in terms of uh leveraging those dollars in relation to this proposition.

So for proposition E, this is police, fire, and emergency communication facility at 63,919,300.

And this is this would go towards the new Fire Station 46 in Southwest Fort Worth, the new emergency communication center, as well as the rebuild of Fire Station 40 in Northwest Fort Worth.

And finally, proposition F is the animal care and shelter improvements at $59,874,000.

And with that, we're gonna jump into some charter amendments.

Again, we do have an opportunity for question answers, so we'll go ahead and have that.

So Trey, okay.

Sorry.

Hi, my name's Trey Qualls.

I'm an assistant city attorney in the Fort Worth City Attorney's Office.

I'm gonna go through the uh proposed charter amendments.

And uh the city charter, as you probably know, is kind of like the founding document of the city, like the constitution.

I like the constitution, it can only be amended after a vote.

Um, and so there are nine propositions.

Uh so jump right in.

Proposition G is the first.

Um, it comes right after the bond propositions, and it's uh deals with uh pay for mayor and council.

Um, if approved, the mayor pay would go from 29,000 to 60,000.

Uh and then all other council members would go from 25,000 to 50,000.

That would start uh beginning of the next fiscal year, which is October 1st of this year.

And the total impact of that for all of the council members and the mayor for a fiscal year is 285,075 for the coming fiscal year and uh every fiscal year thereafter because it's it stays at those set numbers of 60 and 50.

Um the current numbers 29 and 25 are from 2006.

So if approved, the mayor and council pay would go to 60 and 50.

Uh next, proposition H, it removes a requirement in the charter, um, a non-binding requirement in the charter uh that will that gives department directors the ability to request an additional hearing uh before the city council in the event of their termination.

Um it's a duplicative requirement, really, because uh the city council really can't do anything about their termination because they are hired and fired by the city manager.

Um this also this provision also is somewhat in conflict with other provisions in the city charter that say that the city council can't interfere with the hiring and firing decisions of the city manager.

So this is to clean that up.

Uh this is similar.

Uh it has uh the city charter currently has a provision that allows the council appointees to request an additional hearing regarding their termination.

Those already have to come before the city council, which would be in a public meeting, and it already requires a majority vote in a public setting.

So this is a again duplicative of that requirement.

Proposition J is to remove a little quirk that's currently in the city charter that requires the budget hearing and the budget adoption to happen at two separate meetings.

That's not required by state law.

The election Texas election codes has many requirements that we have to jump through to for the budget hearing and then the adoption, tax rate hearing and adoption.

This is one that we created for ourselves for some reason.

I don't know why, but if you you might remember from last September, what this usually requires is it they still happen on the same day.

We hope open one meeting, then the mayor says now I have I'm closing this meeting.

Um then I'm opening the next meeting.

So it's just kind of an additional process step.

It's not really necessary.

All the same requirements under state law and under the um the charter regarding the the uh notice the excuse me, the notice for the public hearing and the public hearing and the adoption of the uh budgets remain the same.

This just kind of removes this unnecessary hurdle of closing a meeting and reopen a meeting on the same day.

Uh K removes a requirement in the charter that doesn't really have a lot of application anymore.

It's because cities don't have a lot of regulatory authority over public service corporations anymore.

Public service corporations are like oil company or excuse me, gas companies, electric companies, water.

Um used to when cities had more regulatory authority.

I think there this requirement would require all of those corporations that operate like franchises in the city to file a public report annually with the city.

This is again sort of duplicative because they all now file them with state agencies.

They're available with those state agencies and online.

Um most of them who are supposed to don't even file them with us anyway.

Uh so this removes that requirement because the information is available elsewhere.

Uh proposition L.

This involves granting of privilege and granting of privileges are again like franchise agreements, these are for hauling solid waste in the city.

Anyone that does that has to get a grant from the city to do so over the city streets, and there's a requirement that the city council has to adopt a separate ordinance for each one of those people who wants to perform that service.

Uh the city council is already in in the city code established requirements for grant of privilege haulers.

Uh, and so this would remove the requirement to take to city council an ordinance every time we want to approve one of those.

Um it already it could be approved administratively following those criteria that the city council is already established by ordinance.

Okay, proposition M would uh remove the requirement for the city manager.

Uh it would excuse me, it would remove the requirement for an ordinance to be approved to reorganize certain department departments that were not already required to be created by the charter.

So it would allow the city manager to reorganize, create new departments when necessary.

It gives more flexibility.

Um rename departments, for instance, used to.

The parks department was called parks and community services, I think, and some places I think it still is, just because we haven't been able to change the name officially in certain areas.

So this would allow the city manager a little flexibility.

I will say it this would not.

Um there are certain departments that are required to be established by charter.

City manager could not abolish those, those would still remain.

Any uh city departments that have previously been established by ordinance, those would have to be to remove them, they would have to be removed by ordinance, so that would have to go to the city council.

Um this is would just allow the city manager some flexibility departmentally later on.

Okay, uh proposition N, this is probably the most technical one.

It develops it aligns our uh some of our requirements in the city code for filling vacancies, short-term vacancies with the Texas elections code.

Um we were looking at this particular provision, we realized that we have a provision that deals with calling the election to special election to fill a vacancy that actually doesn't align with the election code, so we needed to fix that.

Um there's a there's a chart, I think.

Yeah, I'm not sure if this is gonna help or hurt, but um as you may know, we can only hold uh our we have our general elections in May of odd numbered years, so that's far down there on the left and then far on the right in May of uh odd number years, those when we have general elections.

Um we have our in Texas, you can only have special elections to fill vacancies on uh uniform election dates that are in the election code.

That's those other red dots, November 20th, 25, May 2026, um, and November 26th.

And so we have a provision right now about filling those vacancies that occur um less than 90 days before the general election.

Uh and what that if this amendment were approved, it would allow us to fill those or those vacancies that occur um following the last date on which the city could order a special election prior to the general election.

Um I know this is this is the least interesting one, right?

But um I'll give you an example just to show if for instance we had a council member, let's say um that uh we created a vacancy, they resigned and created a vacancy, we'll say in October of 2026.

Um as of right now, that would be too late for us to order a special election on November 2026.

However, because right now the charter says we can only fill a vacancy that occurs um 90 days prior to the general election, it would mean from this point to this point, actually from this point to this point, uh, that that district would not be served by a council person.

So what this allows us to do, it it says that if we miss if the resignation happens after the last date to order a special election before the next general election, uh that is just filled in the same manner that the charter already allows.

Again, don't know if that helped or hurt.

This is the least interesting one to explain.

But if you have questions, I'll be over there.

Uh, and then though I think this is the last proposition.

Oh uh, this is about just uh it's really a technical fix for the language that's uh we have language right now that says the city will pay a purchase order.

Uh and just to make sure, just this one is to clarify that not everything that the city has a bill for is called a purchase order.

It may be a an invoice or a bill or a letter of some.

So this is just to clarify that not everything that the city pays is a purchase order, as long as it comes with the appropriate rec written documentation to sub to support that claim, the city can pay it even if they don't call it a purchase order at the top.

So it's really just a technical fix.

And back to April.

Thank you, Trey.

All right.

So we have um sort of we have a schedule for the bond and charter election education meetings.

Uh we have a total of seven various regional meetings across the city of Fort Worth.

This is meeting number two.

So thank you all so much for attending and for uh coming here today to take time out of your day.

Um if you have friends, if you have family neighbors that would like to attend future um education meetings, please share with them this particular schedule.

Um, also again, this uh we're we're also streaming this on YouTube, so encourage you all to please share uh the link to that.

Uh this will go all the way through April 18th, 2026, um, as shown here.

We started on March 25th.

The last day to register to vote is April 2nd, and that is for the May election.

So April 2nd, it's a big day there.

Um April in April uh this month, we'll have that technical update as mentioned earlier related to the public art ordinance.

And we will end our citywide bond and charter election meetings on April 18th, uh, because early voting will begin on April 20th through April 28th, with election day being on May 2nd.

In the back of your charter of your bond books, um, this does have all the various details uh for whatever county uh you happen to be a part of.

Um there's information as well as it's you know voting will take place from 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

Uh but with that, we're gonna go ahead and open this up for questions.

Uh we do have all of our technical experts that uh our task to really have pulled together a lot of these projects in the future.

Should the bond program uh pass in terms of implementation, that would kind of also fall into their shoulders.

Um there's bond details, bond book, and charter details.

Um, if you happen to have more questions just to dive in.

Uh but with that, I'll I'll open up uh the floor for questions.

We do have microphones as well, so we can always tap on those.

Anything?

All right, question up here.

I have one for Trey.

Perfect, Trey, come on up.

Going back to the one that you said was difficult to explain the elections and everything.

Okay, you almost had me, but what I didn't understand is that if we pass it, are you saying that if somebody were to a council member left in October, they can still the new person can still be on the ballot if this is passed?

This doesn't have anything to do with who can be on a on the ballot.

This is about the time for calling the special election.

This is right.

The way it is now, they can't do it if it's afterwards.

So if they're next if somebody leaves in October and what you're proposing is passed, correct.

Does that mean that you can call this a special election?

You you would not be able to call the special election because there wouldn't be enough time prior to that.

The way it's written now.

Or yes, there still wouldn't be enough time to call the special election if this were passed.

What this would allow is for the city to fill that position, the city council to appoint an individual to fill that position for the remainder of the term, which it already allows the that's the part I didn't get.

Thank you.

Okay.

And one more question.

On there, you said it had to be in all caps on the ballot.

This is in tax increase.

How are you gonna let the people know?

I mean, if I didn't come to this meeting and I go to the ballot and I go, oh my gosh, they're gonna increase my taxes.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

How can you let people know beyond us that that isn't gonna happen?

Okay, are you allowed to do that?

Yeah, great question.

Uh the city of Fort Worth is uh we are not allowed to be advocates in any way before you know, for against that case for the bond itself.

Um, but we are allowed to provide information.

And so that is what we're really trying here today, is to be able to provide the context uh behind how the city of Fort Worth structures this bond program.

Um so it really does come back to individuals coming to these education meetings, sharing the knowledge, being able to, if you have a bond program, um speak with different folks, um, whatever you happen to say um on your own.

Uh you can go ahead and share that.

But the city of Fort Worth still stands and just this is the information, this is where we are with the bond ballot itself, and we cannot change it.

We can't uh I think by the state, we are not allowed to supplement this either.

So the education to the public yeah I mean it's gonna be up to us or I'm on the board of the you can use your mic if you'd like for folks that are listening in.

I'm on the board of the HOA in Creekwood here, and now I'm gonna try and make sure all of our residents know that ignore it, you know, because it's not true.

So I'm hoping other HOAs will do the same.

We're putting that for all the city.

The education the comment is is that we are uh putting as much as possible as far as education, educational meetings on how the city of Fort Worth structures the bond program.

Uh through media.

Yep.

Thank you.

All right, and you have a question up here.

Yep.

Okay.

If it says this is a tax increase, how could it not be a tax increase?

I listened to you.

And yet you're still spending half a billion dollars or more of taxpayer money on lots of things.

And I don't see the value of paying property taxes.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you for your comment, but also the question.

So as mentioned earlier, we do set aside uh for within the city property tax rate, 14 and three quarters of a penny.

And so I may ask Jay to kind of say say this a little more succinctly.

But um, what I can add is that the city of Fort Worth um does have various bonds that we have taken on, and the bonds are structured so that we pay them off over 20 years.

And so, Jay, would you like to expand on that?

Sure.

So basically our the way the city structures its its bond program is that we don't issue debt unless we paid off other debt.

Previous debt, most of the bonds get set for 20-year bond service.

So it's like a mortgage on your home, right?

When you you can't buy a second house unless you if your income allows until you pay your first house off.

Well, when you build a street and the street's $50 million, one of the major roads, the city doesn't have the cash to do that, so you use debt service to build that $50 million street.

And we don't issue the debt until we've taken care of enough debt so that we build bond capacity that still fits under that current tax rate of 14.75 cents.

So as we go forward, you you don't have to rely, you rely on that 14.75 to continue to issue to pay for the debt for all the projects that are listed out in the bond book.

And so that way it doesn't change your tax rate, and so it doesn't, it's not an increase in the tax rate.

Now the value of your home goes up, you might have it an increase in in taxes.

But if you live in Terran County, Terran County this year, for instance, is not appraising single family homes, so it's not gonna go up because they're not changing the tax rate.

I mean your values of your homes.

They didn't change them last year, they're not doing it again this year.

Um but hopefully I answered a question.

That's that's what it that means.

I think the state or the the legislature, when they put that language in, what they said it's a tax increase, even though it's you don't know if it's a tax increase or not until after the fact, because I think they were basing it on a thought that if it didn't issue this debt, then you could lower the tax rate, and so it'd be a tax decrease.

But depending on what the economy is doing, that tax rate might get shifted to the operations in order to pay for police and fire on an annual basis.

The city council is making these decisions.

So it's never a black or white answer to that question.

All right.

Thank you, Jay.

The bonds are these like when you go to your financial guy and he says, Do you want to buy municipal bonds, like tax-free municipal bonds?

Is that what you what you guys are offering to people?

So they are they are available.

You could buy them through your you mean you have to go to like a mutual fund or something like that, and if they're investing in that area, but yes, they're bought, they're basically uh are typically bought by large intermediaries, and so this the city currently we're double A plus, so our interest rates are usually pretty good.

Sorry.

I believe I read somewhere in this paperwork in on the website that debt or the maintenance percentage could go up.

I believe it said something about if circumstances warranted it.

It's in it's on the website somewhere.

Yeah, uh, so it is on the 2026 bond program impact on property taxes.

And so this is based on, and I'm just gonna read it for those who want to tag along.

Um so it's on page one of your PDF uh of your bond book, and it says based on current financial conditions, trends and forecasts, the 2026 bond program has been structured with the intent of debt being issued in a manner that is not expected to require a tax rate increase.

Um is that what you're mentioning, what you're referencing?

Yeah.

And so again, um, as Jay mentioned, uh, that fortune and three quarters of a penny allows us to set our bond capacity as the city pays off the bonds, like the bonds year over year, that we have a set bond capacity that allows us to continue to um just basically set ourselves up for the next bond.

So all so all $845 million dollars of bonds aren't issued at the same time.

The program there's there's not enough contractors to do all the work at one time in the area with all the other work going on with Tex Dot and everything else.

So this program would basically a five-year program where the city issues the debt on an annual basis for the projects that are starting in those years to be completed.

So like I said, there's not a it's not a black and white answer.

If if we move forward and the intent is to not change that tax rate.

So if the economy goes into a recession, for instance, although that's when you want to do the work because everything will be cheaper, but that's a different story.

But if the the economy goes into a recession and the city's tax values go way down, the city council has a choice of saying, and I would recommend this.

We told the taxpayers not to, we're not gonna go change that tax rate.

Instead of being issued over five years, over four years, we're gonna slow down projects and issue that debt over a longer period of time.

So we don't have to change that.

No, we need to move forward on this project, it's too critical or whatever.

So it's not a an exact science, or it's not a black and white answer.

The intent is that our tax rate associated with debt will not change from 14.75.

Okay.

All right, we have a question up here.

Here you go.

Okay, you said over 20 years the debt will be spread out.

Okay.

The bonds.

What you're saying is you're gonna free freeze the tax rate for 20 years.

That tax rate's been the same tax rate for over 10 years.

0.67.

No, the the 1475, the one associated with debt.

Okay.

This is what pays this portion of the tax rate pays for debt.

Okay.

So the other the other uh piece at one time the the council, I mean, when I started at the city, the tax rate in the city was 97 cents.

Over the last 30 years, it's gone down 30 cents.

So my experience is uh, and you can tell me about this particular site here.

I think it was way behind schedule, way over budget.

What how is that gonna be figured into this?

I don't I don't I don't think so because this was done with bonds and the dollars.

But the original budget, it was way over budget.

You know, my experience with streets, everything.

It's it's always behind schedule, way over budget.

That's gonna be figured into that, right?

We've we figured into the actual cost of the project.

Right, but then the actual you know, principal is gonna be a lot higher in the long run.

So that's gonna cause a strain on the tax.

It has not changed again, including this and other.

But I'm talking about the the amount you've got 511 million budgeted for streets.

Right.

That's how much what's gonna happen when we hit that 511 million, and we're gonna stop spending, or are we gonna complete the streets?

You well, you can't the so the project can't get we can't spend more than 511 million for the projects.

Okay, so we quit spending.

Is that correct?

I don't understand the question.

You're making an assumption that there's not going to be enough money to complete the projects, and I would argue with you that that's not also always the case.

There has been inflation since COVID that went up 36% across on construction costs, but that happened everywhere, and so that's just a reality.

But that's where where projects got behind or projects went over.

But those are things you can't there was contingency, but I don't think there was a 40% contingency in the projects.

But that's an anomaly that we've seen over the last five years.

So it's it's simple to say things like, well, everything's over budget.

We have projects that are under budget and delivered early, but those are never talked about.

Sure.

Sure, where's our TPW folks?

Because we're constantly moving dollars around.

Yeah, so I can speak.

So everyone wants me to name one project, but I will tell you we have over 200 projects at any given time.

So I will absolutely find you all something that has come in under budget or uh ahead of schedule.

But typically what happens is once a proposition in a bond program has been declared substantially complete, that's when we're able to essentially take those funds and apply them to the similar propositions.

So for example, proposition A is broken into arterial projects, uh, neighborhood street projects, and uh let's just take traffic signal projects.

So once those traffic signal projects are done, we're able to either take the remaining funds from the projects that went under budget and do more traffic signals.

Does that make sense?

Have you ever considered just saving the money?

I would say we are growing so quickly that our need for projects is you know, I could do four bond programs worth of work just to keep up with the growth.

All right, thank you, Lauren.

Thank you, Jay.

All right, we have a question up here.

Yes, I'm an old guy, but back in the early 1980s, the city wasn't just as you are today, weren't able to promote passage of the bond election.

All you could do was provide information, but there was a citizens group that that actually could go out and promote passage of the bond election.

I know that because I chaired it, but that's been 40 some odd years ago.

Now we've had bond election after bond election since then.

We told them back then, and we've told them over the years, this is not gonna increase your taxes.

The city manages the sale of the bonds and the implementation of the programs, and you're not gonna, you know, it's not expected that this is gonna increase your taxes.

But is there any such group today?

Is there somebody that's that can do that message?

It was a the question the the lady asked her great question a minute ago.

How do we get that word out?

Is there a group that is spreading the word on that?

Yes, sir.

Uh yes, there is.

And I believe it's being chaired by Brian Newby, the former or the just past uh board chair for the chamber of commerce.

I'm not sure who else involved, but I believe there is any questions relating with additional questions related to the bond or charter amendments.

All right, up here.

Thank you.

Uh, this one is for the uh 10 million for the affordable housing.

I don't know who's chairing that, but do they have an idea of the areas of where they want to put the proposed 10 million of in the city?

Yeah, um so related to proposition D, um so also for context.

Each project and each proposition and project scope, it is detailed um in the bond book.

Uh but proposition D affordable housing is citywide.

And I'm gonna have Dana expand a little bit more on how those dollars will be utilized across the city.

So I'll come up here so you don't have to turn turn your turn your neck.

Yes.

Thank you for the question.

So it is available citywide, and so we'll work with the city council on where those dollars could be appropriated or allocated.

The um one of the areas that we'll look at, for example, would be we have neighborhood improvement program areas that have been previously selected by the city council for improvements.

We also have neighborhood empowerment zones that have been designated by the city uh for improvements.

We have um targeted um I apologize when I forget the name, but targeted investment zones through our economic development department through for community development that we could look at as well, urban villages, um, transit um oriented development areas, urban villages.

So there are a number of areas that have already been designated by policy for investment and reinvestment by the city council.

I'm sorry.

Yes, but but the city council is not limited to those areas, so I don't want to say that those are the only areas where we could look uh to to put affordable uh affordable housing.

That's one of the one of the areas.

The other thing though to think to keep in mind is that uh for developers who might be seeking low-income housing tax credits if they wanted to partner with the city, then the state has certain criteria that they use in order to provide those tax credits, and sometimes the locations will get certain kinds of points where they're trying not to concentrate uh developments, and so that might uh have influence over where those projects might be.

And so that's another factor is where those tax credits might be available.

And then where would I go to see the list of is that like yeah, certainly the comprehensive plan speaks to those areas as well as um just certainly if you go to our city website and just type in neighborhood empowerment zones, that'll bring that up.

Yeah.

Has the neighborhood have the neighborhood empowerment zones been put up recently or right?

Because I was looking on your website on the affordable housing, and I could not find any specific locations.

That's correct.

Again, the city balloon yeah, the city council has whatever.

Yeah, that's correct.

The city council has not yet designated areas where they're going to spend those dollars.

I'm sorry, they have areas they're thinking about.

So they've they've not designated areas yet, but just as staff, we would recommend potential areas, and so I'm giving you examples.

And is that on the website?

Yes, neighborhood empowerment zones, the neighborhood improvement program areas.

Yes.

And they're called that on the website?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Are there any additional questions?

All right, going once, going twice.

All right, thank you so much, Dana.

Um, so we're gonna go ahead and open um basically the the meeting is not this particular area, it's open for individuals to um go ahead and mingle, work with all of our staff.

If you happen to have any specific questions on where um certain projects are located, if you have questions on the bond book itself, feel free to catch me at any point.

Um we are available both online.

There's an email on the bond website.

And if not, feel free to reach out to any one of our staff.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um, and I'll go ahead and leave these uh QR codes up here.