City Hall Hustle: Bond Bout

As early votes trickle in, we're fully awash in the fall campaign. With attention invariably focused on the state races, it's easy to forget about Austin's own down-ballot initiative, our $90 million mobility bond election.

Well, it was easy.

One argument made by bond opponents is that the package's payoff is dwarfed by its costs –the same weak tea peddled in GOP commercials against stimulus-supporting Democrats cluttering the airwaves while the Hustle's trying to enjoy daytime viewing of Maury and mirroring that once-successful anti-rail attack ad: "Costs too much. Does too little." (I prefer Povich's line: "You are not the father!")

But if we're judging the bond by its financial impact, its effect on Austin's political action committee economy has been a shot in the arm, as it has for local outrage instigators, acronym-minters, and the cottage industry called Carole Keeton Strayhorn. As the Hustle blogged this week (austinchronicle.com/hustle), newly filed PACs include Engineers Affirming Sustainable Transportation, with Canyon Creek MUD-slinger and sometime political candidate Don Zimmerman as campaign treasurer, as appointed by professional public transpo opponent Jim Skaggs. And this past Sunday's Statesman saw the unveiling of Sensible Transportation Solu­tions for Austin PAC, running a full-page ad. In Fact Daily reports that former Texas Monthly Publisher Mike Levy is the main financial contributor to the PAC, also noting that developer Ed Wendler Jr. (who's previously spoken against the package) and Dominic Chavez (listed as the group's treasurer) are the PAC's media contacts.

Here's where we really reach Glenn Beck-and-a-chalkboard territory: Chavez is also aligned with Austinites for Action, the 501(c)(4) org helmed by Stray­horn and other various and sundry conservatives. (Guess who's on their advisory board: Skaggs and Zimmerman.) AFA has come out against the bond, mainly via Austinites for Downtown Mobility, aka Keep Austin Moving; Strayhorn and AFA are listed as contacts on Austinites for Downtown Mobil­ity's latest blog post. Similarly, the West Downtown Alliance, an ostensible consortium of businesses that lists no actual member businesses, has the same Strayhorn press release on its site. Hilariously, the blog lists the three sister groups – Austinites for Action, Austinites for Down­town Mobility, and West Down­town Alliance – as three separate "citizen organizations."

If only it ended there: Early this week, wannabe Eastside power El Concilio, under the imprimatur of Austinites for Action, issued its own statement claiming six neighborhood associations joined them in opposing the bond. Only two of the six listed are actually recognized by the city, and one of those two, the Montopolis Neighborhood Assoc­iation, actually doesn't oppose the bonds.

Priming for Rail

My boss, Michael King, effectively unpacked most of the arguments against the bond package a couple of weeks ago (see "Point Austin," Oct. 8), but since the Hustle's a glutton for punishment: The biggest grouse, that the package doesn't do enough for roads, ignores the fact that those lanes are managed by our lumbering state pal TxDOT and can't be changed without its input – which the bond package, by earmarking planning funds to partner with the agency on I-35, MoPac and elsewhere, explicitly gets us on the road to doing.

The claim that abridged ballot language "hides" initiatives from voters is simply laughable, as the entire proposal is itemized (see "Rubber Meets the Road"); the complaint's cousin gripes that "bundling" the proposals deprives voters of prioritizing services they want funded. As a DIY cartoon from political consultant Mike Blizzard featuring a conversation between supporters and opponents puts it:

"But wouldn't many people vote for just the projects in their area?"

"Of course they would."

"Then nothing would pass."

"That is the idea."

The package includes no tax increase, as it simply takes the city's existing bonding capacity, raised over the last several bond elections, to pay for the projects –but that's where the Hustle runs into something of a problem.

Given that some projects prime the way for some form of rail –a separate bond election slated for 2012 –should we preserve some bond capacity for later? As Sheryl Cole has previously said in this space, it "doesn't make any sense" for the city to authorize its welter of plans and projects, only to "then let them sit on the shelf" in search of funding. So instead of spending $14.4 million on the Lady Bird Lake Boardwalk –a project once assumed to be largely financed by forthcoming waterfront development –couldn't that money be better spent in two years? Admittedly, $14.4 million is just a drop in the bucket for urban rail, the capital cost of which currently reaches over $1 billion. But every little bit helps –wasn't that the reason council resisted going up to the rollback tax rate this election, to keep a little bit more money in citizens' pockets?

Honestly, as a not nearly often enough user of the Ladybird Lake trail system, the boardwalk proposal – aside from failing to make growth pay for itself, once again –doesn't bother me that much. It will see great use. What irks more (and this may be its real problem) is the largest undifferentiated funding in the package: $19.5 million for street repairs. Whether it's a new highway cloverleaf or a boardwalk, bond elections are about finding ways to pay for things – big, massive things that we can't normally afford, which we wonks call "capital improvement projects." Repairing roads and sidewalks, however, we can charitably call "deferred maintenance." These projects are things we should be able to afford and address on an as-needed basis, with funds from our tax base – if we had an adequate tax base – instead of letting them deteriorate to the point where we need an election.

All that said, the Hustle supports the package. While it doesn't get us where we need to be overnight, it's a first, albeit tentative,step to where we need to go, transportationwise. But with the train coming down the tracks in 2012, we need to pay as we go on the smaller stuff and start thinking smarter about what we really need to save up for.

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Michael King's "Point Austin" will return next week.