BUDA — At its March 24 meeting, Buda City Council adopted a resolution to create a new bond committee for the upcoming bond cycle. The motion passed 7-0.
The Buda Bond Oversight Committee (BBOC) was created in 2021 to review relevant documents including master plans, community surveys and capital improvement projects, following the passage of Proposition A, which focused on transportation, and Proposition B, pertaining to parks and recreation, that same year. Its goal is to ensure the implementation of bond items is time-sensitive, fair, transparent and high-quality.
It currently consists of 17 appointees, including one representative from the Buda Economic Development Corporation (EDC). With the adopted resolution in place, the existing BBOC will be dissolved once the 2021 general obligation bond cycle is complete. The current members will be eligible for reappointment onto the new committee, said assistant city manager Wendy Smith, who gave a presentation on the subject. There is no limit on the number of three-year terms a member can serve, according to its charter.
The committee work plan, according to agenda documents, recommended bringing in four representatives from the following development areas: Garlic Creek, Bonita Vista, Stonewood Commons and Stone Ridge. In addition to the four recommended seats, seven more can be added to the committee.
The committee is advisory in nature, meaning it does not pass binding resolutions. Rather, it recommends action to city council pertaining to bond items. The new bond committee will function much in the same way. Additionally, they will have an active role in recommending actions to be included in the 2027 election, whereas the BBOC oversaw only the implementation of projects and a separate Bond Advisory Committee recommended projects to council.
Smith highlighted the value of public input when reviewing potential projects. The committee meetings will be conducted with transparency and open for public comment. The city may also hold workshops or solicit input through surveys during the recommendation process. Any relevant meeting information and materials will be posted to www.BudaBonds.com.
Council member LaVonia Horne-Williams further emphasized the importance of allowing public participation.
“Let’s make sure we gear [the committee], so that people know if they want to participate, we are not going to keep them from showing up to a meeting,” she said.
Buda’s bonding capacity for 2027 is contingent upon the rate at which the city increases taxes. City manager Micah Grau explained that the city currently does not have “any capacity to issue any more debt and hold our tax rate steady.”
The city’s tax rate is already expected to increase from $0.2594 to $0.3225, pending the closure of Certificates of Obligation (COs) to fund public projects and issuance of the remaining 2021 general obligation bond funds.
Smith presented the council with a model proposing various tax rate increases to give the city bonding capacity in 2027. On the low end, a $0.02 rate increase would allow for a $14.765 million bond election. On the high end, a $0.04 increase allows the city to issue $29.525 million in debt.
“This is all subject to a conservative growth outlook,” Grau noted. If the city grows more rapidly than anticipated, the bonding capacity will rise.
At the meeting, city council approved a motion to hold the next bond election on Nov. 2, 2027, as opposed to holding off and having the election in 2028. That motion passed 6-1. Horne-Williams dissented, but did not state why.
The ability to issue debt played heavily into that decision, something Mayor Lee Urbanovsky said council was very likely to lose in 2027. He discussed how the state attempted to pass a bill during the 2025 legislative session rescinding municipal authority to issue debt and could succeed in doing so during their 2027 session.
“[Next year is] right around the corner. We have a lot of things that might be ready to go. Let’s just get them over the finish line,” stated council member Greg Bowles, echoing Urbanovsky’s concerns surrounding the state legislature.
Holding the election in 2027 means the preliminary engineering phase of the cycle will have a shorter scope. The council can pause committee activity or repeal the resolution, if they decide not to follow the timeline.
Per the timeline for the 2027 election presented by Smith, city council will appoint new members to the bond committee in December of this year. A chair and vice-chair of the committee will also be established at that time. The existing and new members will have their first official meeting Jan. 18, 2027.
The committee is expected to wrap up and adopt recommendations the week of April 5, 2027, which they will bring to the council for final approval.
Come election day in November 2027, Buda residents will be able to approve or dissent to the total cost of the bond package. Information on the specific items approved by the council will be provided to residents starting in August 2027.
Buda City Council will meet next Tuesday, April 7.
