The Hays Free Press is devoted to the idea that information makes for good communities. We are also a business.
In both contexts, we urge readers – without reservations – to vote “Yes” on the Kyle road bond package.
We understand the frustrations of friends and readers who are in the “no” camp. The package is not perfect. The process of “how we got here” was not perfect. Dealing with growth is frustrating.
But the bottom line is that we are growing, like it or not.
For us, a yes vote means working together as a community for the common good and a balanced bond that follows through on roads like Marketplace and Burleson from the transportation plan and fixes critical routes to Lehman High, like Lehman, Bunton and Goforth.
A yes vote means taking active control to manage growth. It means acknowledging that growth is coming, and trying to make that a positive.
It means economic development opportunities – new business development along Marketplace and better transport for existing businesses on Bunton.
It means better access for the whole city to Seton hospital, and quicker emergency response times.
It means continuing the on-going work to help Kyle evolve and to hold onto the quality of life we cherish as the city grows, rather than just throwing up our hands and accepting gridlock.
It means taking advantage of historically low interest rates and the city’s excellent bond rating.
What a yes vote does not mean is a huge tax hike, even though some residents fear that. The city contributed to that perception inadvertantly when it published early studies that quoted possible outlandish tax implications.
That was a mistake, and subsequent efforts to explain the bond package tax effects have suffered from the early miscues – city numbers that were based on a wish list that was never under serious consideration, and, later, on a “never grow again” scenario that was utterly silly as a practical guide for future taxes citizens are likely to pay.
A better way would have been for the city to adopt a reasoned and conservative economic projection at the beginning, and to publish a range of “likely” implications based on that, as most other area governments have done when preparing bonds.
At least we can say the city has warned everyone of “worst case,” basing initial projections of a 21-cent tax increase that assumed no new homes, no new businesses, no appreciation in existing property values, and no increase in sales tax in Kyle over the next 20 years.
Rubbish.
More credible analysis released since then indicates that with current trends, the bonds could be repaid without any tax rate increase. That’s because we continue to grow, as we did even in the the recession – adding new homes values that help carry the cost of improvements; adding new businesses that add fresh taxes; and adding new retail stores – like the coming Walmart – that have caused our sales tax receipts to grow for the last 43 quarters – 11 uninterrupted years.
Great cities do not hide from challenges, nor cling too tightly to the past. They honor the past while adapting to the future.
We have a chance to meet that future head on – or to postpone what needs to be done until mañana, letting costs rise, ensuring traffic will get worse, risking more tragedy on dangerous roads.
Vote Yes, and let’s move forward to a better future.
