Finishing Court timestamp around 4:45
Long talk on MonkeyPox. Save everyone time but to 'not make the same mistakes of COVID', which is not the case and the disease is not similar at all, to a respiratory disease. Bottleneck is the lack of vaccines, and yet there's very little talk on asking and demanding people change their lifestyles to stem the transmission. Which of course was not an issue during COVID.
Motion on doses, doesn't being held for 2nd dose be distributed now in anticipation of 2nd doses arriving at a later date. 5-0
2nd motion: funding source for Public Health, to the tune of $1.7M, 5-0, but money can't be distributed until next court.
Timestamp 6:04
Item#264, Study on attrition, Universal Services (IT) and the issues with the jail, Engineering, Public Health are experiencing high turnover. Higher turnover degrades overall performance. No action.
Item#270 Taxable Value of the Property Roll. This will have a big issue over setting the tax rate in upcoming courts. HCAD is not under direct control of the appraisal district. No Action.
Item#285, Budget office not intending to increase taxes over 3.5%. They will max out the tax rate, but they will not exceed the limits set by Voter Approval Rates.
Next part is a bit confusing because the person speaking is referencing a presentation from end of June, but I believe he's saying that if taxes are maxed at 3.5% the county will have a $47M shortfall due to inflation and cost of business at existing operation rates. AKA, cuts would have to be made.
If the county adopted a no-new tax rate, the county would have a $107M deficit at current operating standards.
Inflation is expected to increase in 2023, so the current estimates are going to fall short any way you cut it. Cagle has brought up multiple times during this court that the county is spending way too much on outside consultants when existing staff exists. Pretty clear where cost savings can be made.
Person speaking stating excessive spending on health, jails and policing. His concern is not only for 2023 but for the next 5 years. Now talking of $200M cuts per year. Current budget is ballpark $2.15B.
1st thing they're talking about cutting is benefits and a COLA being nixed, when they had a presentation that salaries are lower than the 50th percentile in the region. AKA, county pays less, and now they're talking about reducing benefits. People, get ready for the county gov't to be worse than it currently is. Private sector is discussing massive layoffs, so this goes hand in hand, while prices continue to rise. It'll be bad all around.
Which is probably why they're pushing hard for the Bond to cover the gap.
Timestamp 6:45
Item#20, Bond. $1.2B
$100M Public Safety
$900M in Infrastructure/Transportation
$200M Parks
Discussion in a disagreement of how these funds will be allocated. In the 2015 bond, the funds were split by % of roads within each precinct. So PCTs 3&4 received a higher percentage because those two pcts cover a larger portion of unincorporated county and thus more county owned roads. A later court split it equally by pct. Which resulted in PCTs 3&4 being shortchanged on ability to maintain existing roadways.
Lots of arguing around 7:12.
Garcia: we're staring down 30% inflation. My pct is constantly underfunded.
Cagle: Is this the time to tax the public?
Why are we spending $1M on public engagement, when only $250k was spent on the flood bond.
Why are we trying to issue this bond now, when we have big ticket items coming to us, we need to preserve bonding capacity. I'm not really clear what big ticket items are coming, but he's right that the public will be exhausted by continually adding debt.
States that there's $197,900,000 left over from the 2015 bond. Where PCT1 has hardly spent any, and Ellis stated a few minutes earlier that he'd spent everything. Well...those two statements don't mesh.
States that it's unknown how/where these funds will be spent for the 2022 bond.
Timestamp 7:25
Hidalgo, asking PCT 3&4 if they 'need' the proposed bond revenue and if they can essentially release their 'portion' to 1&2 for the next year.
Cagle: We're not going to operate on a 'trust you' notion. He wants it written down how the split of revenue will be divided. Essentially "I don't trust you to be fair and transparent", paraphrased.
Ramsey: There is not enough time to negotiate this out before the election. He'd prefer the bond be voted on in 2023. All of the negotiation would have to be done in Oct, and due to the redistricting and flip flop of commissioners, he's stating he's still getting to know the issues in his new precinct.
Hidalgo...all but public safety dollars should be spent worst-first, with each pct receiving a minimum of $220M if there is a 'need' beyond the minimum then it can be argued for (I guess in court?), unclear how unallocated funds will be diverted. The remainder is $220M yet to be distributed.
Very end: Hidalgo and Ellis and Garcia all arguing at the end.
Bond Passes: 3-2
Distribution Framework Passes: 3-2
*Garcia stalls, because he's not happy about the framework.
Court Ends
