Will the city of Longview start to be known as the debt capital of East Texas?
I attended the town hall event last night held by city councilman David Wright at Spring Hill High School. He discussed plans for the proposed 20 year $104.2 million bond package the city is considering putting before the voters. He said the city council must decide by August 22, 2018. There were about 40 in attendance of which almost half were city employees. At one point, Mr Wright said of the bond, (I'm paraphrasing), "We can't live on our current budget, to do the things we want, we need more money". In other words, 'We need to raise your property taxes'.
The city of Longview operates on a $162M budget of which 8% is designated to pay down existing debt. It's current debt obligation according to the city's website is $65M in General Obligations (GO) that is not scheduled to expire until year 2033 and another $84M in Revenue Debt according to the Texas Comptrollers office (2016 numbers). The new bond would increase Longview's debt obligation to almost $245M.
That's not all, the four local school districts have also passed bonds in the last few years that have also raised property taxes. LISD in 2007 passed a $267M bond package and according to the TxComp. has $351M in GO debt and another $8.3M in Capital Appreciation debt (CAB). PTISD has $91.25M GO debt and $1.83M CAB debt, and SHISD has $63.4M in GO debt and $3.8M CAB and those residents that touch HISD are subject to $98.5M GO debt.
Longview City Council will hold its regular meeting this Thursday night the 26th. If you're concerned about all the debt this city is racking up, I encourage you to make your voice heard. Tell the city council to vote NO on any more bond elections. Longview residents just can't afford it.
Here are the particulars: (I have it broken down further if you're interested)
Building Projects - $52.4M
Infastucture - $28M
Parks - $ 24.7M
Infastucture - $28M
Parks - $ 24.7M
