CORPUS CHRISTI – A $96 million bond package is one city council vote away from going to the ballot box.
Corpus Christi’s City Council gave preliminary approval for Bond 2018 to appear on November’s ballot Friday.
Of the $96 million in projects proposed under Bond 2018, $74 million are for street projects. Those projects make up Propositions A and B.
“People want their streets fixed, that was evident last bond program,” said Mayor Joe McComb. “This is just a continuation of the streets in our city, both residential and arterial and collector streets.”
Proposition A features $52 million dollars worth of street repair, more than $10.5 million of which will go towards fixing residential streets. Proposition A also features no property tax increase, but residents would see a roughly $2 monthly increase on their utility bills.
Proposition B adds another $22 million in street repairs. It would add $0.82 a month in utilities, as well as a $.01 property tax increase.
“They’ve been neglected for many years and we are aggressively pursuing trying to resolve that,” said McComb. “ As you drive around town, you’ll see a lot of construction.”
That construction is from bond projects dating back as far as 2004. MComb says by the end of 2019, virtually all back projects will be finished.
City officials are also already working on Bond 2018 projects in order to prevent similar delays.
“They’re not going to see three, four, five year delays,’ said McComb. “The way we’re setting the programs up now, we’re wanting to get these things rolling because people expect performance when they give you approval.”
Propositions C through F cover parks & recreation, libraries, public safety, and public health. If all four are approved, they’d bring another $0.01 property tax increase, but no utility hikes.
