By Suzanne Sprague
DALLAS – Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 Reporter: On November 6th, the State will ask you to authorize the sale of $3.5 billion in public bonds through four state constitutional amendments. More than half of that money is rolled into the last proposition on the ballot - Number 19, the water bonds. Craig Pederson, Executive Administrator, Texas Water Board: The vast majority of what we do with these bonds are helping small communities with wells, with pipelines, with water and wastewater treatment and with matching the state and federal revolving funds.
Sprague: When the Texas Water Board's Executive Administrator Craig Pederson appeared on 90.1's "The People's Agenda" two weeks ago, he claimed that $2 billion in water bonds are needed to ensure an abundant, safe water supply for the rapidly growing Texas population. But there are other views of Proposition 19.
Dave McNeely, Columnist, Austin American-Statesman: Which is drawing some opposition from environmental groups who think you shouldn't be building a bunch of projects that they think will mess up the waterways and dam up some rivers and cause problems ecologically.
Sprague: Austin-American Statesman political columnist Dave McNeely says opponents of Prop. 19 believe the State should invest more in water conservation. Some environmentalists also fear the State will use the money for controversial reservoirs in East Texas, as opposed to helping smaller communities throughout the state. And -
McNeely: Some people are just kind of against the idea of what they would call "borrow and spend financing."
Sprague: McNeely says the turnout for November 6th is expected to be low, tipping the scales toward the anti-spending voters. And that might spell doom for Governor Rick Perry's pet project on the ballot, Proposition 15, which would create the Texas Mobility Fund to help finance new state highway construction.
Rick Perry, Texas Governor: Proposition 15 is a very innovative way of bonding these roads where we will see major infrastructure projects in the state of Texas completed from six to seven years earlier than if we had relied on our old pay-as-you-go system.
Sprague: Proposition 15 authorizes the Legislature to borrow money to build roads, a new concept for Texas, which has always relied on gas tax and auto license fees. But the ballot doesn't say how much money to borrow or identify where the money will come from. Nancy Wilson with the League of Women Voters of Texas says that's why there's some opposition.
Nancy Wilson, League of Women Voters of Texas: People who oppose the fund also say that it would be more expensive in the long run because we would be paying interest on these bonds. So the thinking is, if we need more roads, we should raise the gasoline tax perhaps and just stick with that pay-as-you-go if we really need it, rather than borrowing the money to do it.
Sprague: Transportation is also at the heart of Proposition 2, which would authorize an additional $175 million in bonds to build private roads in some of the poorest colonias along the border. And the State is asking voters to approve $850 million in bonds on Proposition 8 for construction and repair of state-owned buildings, like prisons and hospitals. Again, the League's Nancy Wilson.
Wilson: The reason for this is that the current budget has not really been able to cover these expenses. There has been a lot of maintenance involved and just general upkeep that hasn't been able to take place because of a lack of funding. But the people who are opposing this say, truly, this should come out of the budget - that bond financing is not appropriate for short-term projects like general maintenance. And also, some of these agencies, bureaus, within the government don't have really good management records.
Sprague: There is less concern about Proposition 7, the last of the bond amendments. The measure would allow the state to borrow $500 million dollars to build veterans' cemeteries and offer low-interest housing loans to veterans. Elizabeth Hanshaw Winn with the Secretary of State's office explains why the State is asking voters to approve Prop. 7.
Elizabeth Hanshaw Winn, Director, Legal Division, Elections Department, Texas Secretary of State's Office: Texas has received more applications to the Veterans Housing Assistance Program, and to accommodate the increase in the application process and the anticipated future applications, the Legislature felt that more funds were needed to make sure we don't deplete the current funds in that program.
Sprague: These types of loans are historically very reliable, and the bonds are paid off by the veterans, not the voters. But some opponents say the program ignores the bigger concerns of an aging veteran population, like medical care and hospitals. All of these proposed amendments will lead to billions of dollars in new state spending, but the State is also asking voters to approve three cuts in revenue.
Dick Lavine, Center for Public Policy Alternatives: I think that these three amendments, all of which are asking for special property tax exemptions for very certain small classes of taxpayers, are an example of what's wrong with the system.
Sprague: Dick Lavine is with the Center for Public Policy Alternatives, an Austin-based think tank that analyzes the effects of public policy on the poor. Lavine admits two of the amendments, which exempt green coffee in Harris County and some RVs from property taxes, are fairly small. But he takes more of an issue with Proposition 10, which exempts warehoused goods from property taxes.
Lavine: We can't be sure that the Controller's office estimated that the loss would be somewhere in the range of $35 million a year for school districts and $11 million a year for counties and $12 million for cities. So, that's over $50 million a year in lost revenue for schools, cities and counties. That's important.
Sprague: The Legislature could reimburse local taxing authorities for this lost revenue, but then the State's expenditures would grow. Proponents of the exemption say Texas is losing warehouse jobs to nearby states that do offer the tax break. Nancy Wilson with the League of Women Voters of Texas explains.
Nancy Wilson, League of Women Voters of Texas: So the people who are proposing, or who are proponents of this bill, say that if we had it, that the ad valorem tax we lose would be more than made up by the increased jobs that would be provided.
Sprague: Wilson notes there hasn't been much coverage of these issues as news budgets have been stretched by the war on terrorism. But she is hoping voters will study the amendments themselves and take to the polls today or Tuesday. An on-line voters guide is available at www.lwvtexas.org. For KERA 90.1, I'm Suzanne Sprague.