Owen: Lubbock spending proposals could raise property tax a whopping 25%!

By Burley Owen

I thought I would give you a little report on the Citizens Advisory (Bond) report this last week.

The total proposed bond total comes to about $134 million. They recommended that the police department and Emergency Management Center, amounting to just under $67 million, be pulled out and be funded with certificates of obligation which would not require approval by the citizens of Lubbock. Those two totals makes the total amount of money we are talking about is right at $200 million.

Projects include a new parks maintenance facility, a new public works building, replacing all the existing swimming pools with new pools with amenities like splash pads and wave pools plus a new aquatic center, and some for street maintenance and street paving. Development of Canyon Lakes area with additional bike and walking trails with restrooms and park benches. Another dam on the Canyons Lake to back the water up so the lake could provide a water feature that people could see when they come into or leave Lubbock on North I 27.

Remember that further expansion and improvement of the Canyon Lakes was one of the things Imagine Lubbock Together was advocating. And the Mayor says the City has nothing to do with Imagine Lubbock Together yet the City continues to promote projects advocated by ILT such as the Canyon Lakes and a mono rail system.

A chart was presented, called a Cap/Ex sheet that that showed the tax rates that would be and the dollars required to service the debt if all items are passed. Remember this does not include the Police station. As usual, the figures are based on a $100,000 house. The first year figures are low because not very much construction could take place in the remainder of 2015 if the bond election is held in May of 2015.

Percent of property tax increase required on a $100,000 house for the first five years if all the items are approved:

2015—1.08%
2016—1.27%
2017—4.14%
2018—4.81%
2019—4.38%
Total 15.68%

My thought is that the City has been increasing the property tax rate at about 2% every year. So 2% X 5 years equals 10%. If you add those two figures together that means that over the next five years the taxpayers of Lubbock could be looking at a 25% tax increase over the next five years if all items are approved by the voters. This not include any tax increases from the other taxing entities. Not does it include any increase in utility rates.

The money required to service the debt during the first five years of a 20 year bond would be, 2015—$633.200; 2016—$1.295.000; 2017—$1,704,000; 2018—$1,542,000, 2019—$985,000.

When ask about some of Lubbock’s debt rolling off to off-set these increases, the speaker replied that very little of Lubbock’s current debt would roll off to help off-set these increases.

One of the points stressed at the beginning and at the end of the presentation was that Lubbock’s property tax rate has been going down since 2004. That has held us back from having the resources to do what we needed to do. For this reason, this is why…. I have not checked this out but even if it is true, taxes and revenue have gone up each year because the increase in property evaluations, sales tax increases, increases in fees, and  other items. [A.k.a. Appraisal Creep] Mikel Ward has already pointed out that over the last ten years, total revenue to the City has increased $394 million. That is an average just under $40 million per year.