CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — 3NEWS sat down with assistant city managers Neiman Young and Heather Hurlbert to discuss some of the questions voters may have about Bond Proposition A, which deals with streets and Prop C, which is for public safety.
Voters may be concerned about voting for Prop A because many of the projects are design only. That means in two years voters will have to approve the actual construction. But what if they don’t? That means millions of dollars will be spent on designs that never lead to construction.
"That’s fine, that’s okay. Because those engineering plans and designs don’t go stale or they don’t expire very quickly and the city has a myriad of funding streams we can use to actually execute the project,” said Assistant City Manager Neiman Young.
Now, one thing in Prop A that people are sure to like is the $35 million dollars that will be dedicated to residential street projects. Former Councilman and city critic David Loeb says he voted for prop A but gave a thumbs down to Prop C. It features new fire stations. It also includes police substations around town to promote community policing. Loeb doesn’t buy it.
"Community policing is not sitting in a building. I mean, you’re in a community interaction business you sitting behind a desk in the newsroom is not your community interaction. Your community interaction is being out in the community talking to people,” said former Councilman David Loeb.
Other people may question the overall price tag of the bonds which is $175 million dollars. These city officials say the projects are needed to improve streets, improve quality of life and help better protect residents now and well into the future without having to lay out all that money at once.
"By utilizing debt and utilizing property taxes as they are collected on an annual basis it helps spread that cost of that asset out over the life of the asset and it also provides the opportunity to the taxpayer who is using that asset over that life to pay incrementally into it,” added Assistant City Manager Heather Hurlbert.
