Council could OK task force to design bond package focused on climate change

Next week, City Council will consider forming a task force to design the city’s next bond package expected to go before voters by fall 2026.

Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool has led on the resolution that calls for the creation of a 22-member body that would begin meeting in October, with Mayor Kirk Watson and the rest of Council each appointing two members.

The new group will take public comment on a variety of pressing city needs for the next bond vote, though Council members have signaled that infrastructure related to climate change is their preferred focus.

The city’s last comprehensive bond proposal was approved in 2018 and provided the authorization to sell $925 million of bonds to address transportation, affordable housing, libraries and museums and flood mitigation.

The task force will be required to hold at least four community input sessions outside of the city center core and deliver periodic progress reports to Council. By July 1 next year, Council would expect to receive a report with all of the projects recommended by the group for the final bond package.

While climate matters have received considerable attention in recent Council discussions on the next bond proposal, Pool said she wants to see a variety of city needs evaluated and included in task force’s recommendations. With the city currently sitting on roughly $1 billion in approval to sell bonds for forthcoming work, she said the group will also need to look at possible scheduling and logistics issues.

“I hope it includes libraries. It will touch on, obviously, the climate issues and maybe more of an investigation into what projects are cued up in a time assessment so that we can actually get working on and spending the bond dollars,” Pool said. “We have over $1 billion waiting to be triggered, approved by the community, but we haven’t sold them yet. That was one of my concerns in rushing into this and possibly having an election in 2024, when we have so much actually queued up and waiting.”

During recent workshops on the next city budget, staff in charge of city finances expressed some concern about the amount of bonds the city is currently repaying as well as the amount waiting to be sold to pay for approved projects. Those financial realities contributed to assorted city staff and consultants cautioning against pursuing another bond package sooner than fall 2026.

Pool, who served on a bond task force prior to joining Council and has approved two packages to go before voters as a Council member, said the group will have to balance pressing needs against voters’ willingness to approve new property taxes. While the resolution slated for Thursday’s meeting doesn’t specifically mention cultural spaces as a possible project category, she said she expects arts proponents to join the discussion along with those backing a variety of other issues.

“Putting together a bond package is like building a budget. You assess where you’re at, you look at what the needs are in the community, and then you look at the revenue tools that you have available to you and the varying timelines and constraints that each of those has. And then there are certain things that certificates of obligation are not legally permitted for,” she said. “We also have to be mindful of what can pass at the ballot box, and how much tax burden people are willing to shoulder. Transportation bonds have been a real winner, and so have park bonds in the past. Sometimes trails are a little bit harder to get passed, including at the county level.”

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