So now they want to take a $61 million building with a sky bridge and adding another $10 million to the total ? How about deleting the sky bridge to offset the 4th floor ? Thank goodness we have a commissioner willing to ask questions.

https://wtaw.com/brazos-countys-future-office-complex-across-from-the-courthouse-is-on-hold/

If there was no sky bridge then people would have to cross the street at the stop light to get between the two buildings.

So they propose a $0.03 tax increase? On top of the effective increase of 10% from property valuation increases that many of us see annually..

I guess that unvoted magic 10% wasnt enough.

doubledog said:

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If there was no sky bridge then people would have to cross the street at the stop light to get between the two buildings.

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This. If we can't have both buildings on the same side of the road then the sky bridge is necessary to avoid creating a safety hazard.

Mathguy64 said:

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So they propose a $0.03 tax increase? On top of the effective increase of 10% from property valuation increases that many of us see annually..

I guess that unvoted magic 10% wasnt enough.

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The three cent increase appears to be a miscalculation by WTAW. Here's their other article

https://wtaw.com/brazos-county-commission-proposes-a-property-tax-rate-increase-of-more-than-three-cents/

"Brazos County commissioners propose a property tax rate increase of more than three cents... The proposal calls for the Brazos County property tax rate going from .419700 to .423059."

$0.4197 to $0.4231 is a 0.3 cent increase.

What's really rich is hearing them bemoan the "billion and a half in valuation litigation" going on and how "property tax protesters" are hurting the county.

Translation-
Taxpayers are fighting back against tax and spend politicians by cutting off their supply of tax dollars gained by inflating valuations and the tax and spenders don't like it

its never enough. they will always want more of your money for their BS.

Safety hazard? In cities all around the world people cross streets at signal lights. It's not a big deal. Certainly not worth $10mm.

Or you could hire a crossing guard for the next 30 years for about 1 million.

t-rex said:

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Safety hazard? In cities all around the world people cross streets at signal lights. It's not a big deal. Certainly not worth $10mm.

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Is part of it transporting prisoners on trial back and forth securely?

t-rex said:

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Safety hazard? In cities all around the world people cross streets at signal lights. It's not a big deal. Certainly not worth $10mm.

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Think of this from a personal injury lawyer's pov. Does your job require you to cross a busy street (several times a day) to travel between one building to another?

I was against building a county office across the street from the courthouse but....

One truth about government. There are never consequences for bad decisions.

Huh. I walk between buildings on campus. I must have missed the skywalks to protect me from crossing the streets and sidewalks between them.

Damn. I have been secretly endangering myself for years and its all the BOR fault for not building skywalks.

Build fewer interior walls and provide more cubicle space. Money saver

Mathguy64 said:

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Huh. I walk between buildings on campus. I must have missed the skywalks to protect me from crossing the streets and sidewalks between them.

Damn. I have been secretly endangering myself for years and its all the BOR fault for not building skywalks.

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You're trying way too hard. Do you walk across Wellborn daily? Theres tunnels so you don't have to do that. Why? Because it's dangerous. Same basic idea. These folks are crossing Texas Ave daily. It's a near guarantee that someone is going to be hit by a car one day. Hence the tunnels under Wellborn. Then factor in lost productivity on bad weather days when people don't want to go out in the rain.

I get frustration with runaway government spending. I don't get frustration with the county installing a safe way for their employees to cross one of the busiest streets in town.

I can save the tax payers a little money. For $60 million, I will shuttle people back and forth Monday - Friday 6am to 6pm.

You can pay a shuttle service $75/hr - for12 hours a day - 5 days a week 52 weeks a year for 250 years and that only comes out to $58.5 million

Why don't we have one of those green busses that drive around empty shuttle people across the street. The transit district also has minivans.

Didn't these used to be in various spots around town and campus?

Where do the defense attorneys park? Is it safe? Why can't the prosecutors park there?

There is zero need for a damn sky bridge. Use the cross walk.

There are all kinds of crosswalk lights systems with people sensors etc that are available that are used in cities with populations 10-50x of Bryan. I'm pretty certain they are viable non-bridge options at less than 10% of the cost.

BCSWguru said:

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its never enough. they will always want more of your money for their BS.

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Judge Duane's and Nancy Berry's thirst for your money will remain unquenched.

Hornbeck said:

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BCSWguru said:

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its never enough. they will always want more of your money for their BS.

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Judge Duane's and Nancy Berry'd thirst for your money will remain unquenched.

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You just need the right kind of eyes to behold their vision

wareagle044 said:

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Didn't these used to be in various spots around town and campus?

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An ADA compliant ramp to a crossover high enough to allow semis to go under would take up some serious real estate.

doubledog said:

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If there was no sky bridge then people would have to cross the street at the stop light to get between the two buildings.

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NYC and Chicago say hello.

Fact: we've been in BCS for 17 years. The local fools in government will have NEVER spent our money like it was their money. They invent ways to justify spending with higher taxes, more ridiculous projects, and then pretend the citizens are against "progress" …. It's the prototypical tax you to death scheme.

retiredintx said:

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Fact: we've been in BCS for 17 years. The local fools in government will have NEVER spent our money like it was their money. They invent ways to justify spending with higher taxes, more ridiculous projects, and then pretend the citizens are against "progress" …. It's the prototypical tax you to death scheme.

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Many commissioners and/or council members for CoCS, Bryan, Brazos etc.. are fishing for a legacy project (IMHO). Something to put their name on.

Smeghead4761 said:

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wareagle044 said:

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Didn't these used to be in various spots around town and campus?

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An ADA compliant ramp to a crossover high enough to allow semis to go under would take up some serious real estate.

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Also it has been shown that if people must put some effort in crossing a street via an overhead walkway or crossing at the street level then the street level will win every time.

I really do not have a dog in this fight, but it appears there will be a lot of foot traffic between buildings. If the staff/lawyers/judges/LEO etc must first take the elevator to the ground floor. Walk across the street, walk back through security and then take an elevator back up to their floor, then I predict a lot of "screw this" situations and they will not put in the effort (although it is their job).

The Medical Examiner facility being built is another example. It's costing 30-50% more per SF than a hospital for the living would cost. It's a bloated project that will be committing the county to a bloated budget.

Brazos County has an 11% increase in values and is asking for a 1% increase in their budget. I dug into their budgets and don't see any reason for a tax increase.

County Judge Kacal will be interviewed Thurs morning, on WTAW. Likely during the 8-9:00 slot. Might be interesting, especially about taxes, and the Appraisal District screwups.

OPM for sure after watching this. Delete the sky bridge. People cross the street in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, etc. They can have a great crosswalk and cross Texas Ave.

Brazos County considers expanding annex project to meet future court needs https://www.kbtx.com/2025/09/04/brazos-county-considers-expanding-annex-project-meet-future-court-needs/

Lots of county roads are absolutely atrocious and have been in need of major repairs for years. 1179, Old Reliance, 2038, Democrat Road, Grassbur, 974 etc are all in fairly bad shape and getting worse by the month. $60 million would go much further in helping thousands of citizens of Brazos County each and every day vs spending that money on a sky bridge so a few hundred people aren't so inconvenienced that they have to suffer walking across a cross walk in the rain and heat. Spare me the safety aspect. If you aren't smart enough to use a crosswalk and look both ways you may just be a Darwin candidate.

The sky bridge is brought to you by the same type of people that think medians are necessary on every major street, that the mini round-a-bouts that are way undersized and inconvenient were a good idea and seemingly accept without question that the existing street projects (Texas and 21 intersection, Old College, WJB reconstruction, etc) all take multiple years to complete without any real valid reason given why the projects aren't progressing.

We get what we vote for or in the case of most local elected officials what we don't vote for since so many people don't even bother to show up at the polls.

Certain groups around here count on that.

Exactly right. For the most part, it's the same people elected to local offices. They just jump from council, to mayor, to commissioner, to judge, to board etc. Most run in the same circles and have enough local funding or personal wealth to keep getting re-elected. I know a few. Most are good people that I like on a personal level but they also vote to spend my tax money on some stupid ***** The "pet projects" comment earlier was spot on. Fix infrastructure first and foremost. Pet projects need to be voted on by the people.

EBrazosAg said:

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The Medical Examiner facility being built is another example. It's costing 30-50% more per SF than a hospital for the living would cost. It's a bloated project that will be committing the county to a bloated budget.

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What are the $/sqft amounts for a hospital and the ME building?

GenXAg said:

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The sky bridge is brought to you by the same type of people that think medians are necessary on every major street

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TXDOT is bringing us a sky bridge? That's who brought us the medians. #ProSuicideLane