John Cox, Citizen Bond Exploratory Committee Chair

The Citizen Bond Exploratory Committee will present the recommendation for a potential general obligation bond election in November 2023.

Provide the recommendation from the Citizen Bond Exploratory Committee. (Jared Askelson, Deputy Finance Director; John Cox, Citizen Bond Exploratory Committee Chair)

There is no direct fiscal impact from this item. The Committee's recommendation is to include a total of $192 million of voter authorization on the November 2023 ballot. The recommendation will maintain the total property tax rate at or below $1.74, in compliance with the City's financial policy.

On August 29, 2022, the Citizen Bond Exploratory Committee was created by Council action. The Committee, consisting of citizen and stakeholder volunteers, was tasked with providing a recommendation to Council regarding a potential bond authorization election in November 2023. The recommendation is a financial plan that includes details related to the property tax impact, projects, priorities, and ballot questions. The Council gave further direction at a work session October 17, 2022, to help narrow the focus of the Committee. The Committee met on ten occasions, receiving information from city staff, reviewing results of a public opinion survey, and contemplating the direction given by City Council through the Committee by-laws and during the work session to arrive at a recommendation. Based on these sources and the deliberation of the Committee, the recommended financing plan November 2023 election includes $95 million for Transportation purposes, $80 million for Public Safety purposes, and $17 million for Parks and Recreation purposes. The Parks and Recreation recommendation is dependent on favorable results from a second public opinion survey. The full recommendation also includes a prioritized list of projects and ballot questions for each category.

General obligation (GO) bonds are among the most secure financing mechanisms available to municipalities and usually offer the lowest interest rates. Having recently extinguished voter authorization in various categories of infrastructure, the City cannot issue additional GO bonds for Transportation, Public Safety, Parks and Recreation, and Facilities purposes without an election. The Council created the Citizen Bond Exploratory Committee to form a recommendation for a potential election in November 2023. The Committee recommendation is in compliance with the by-laws adopted by Council. It is also in line with direction provided by Council at the October 17, 2022, work session.