County $60M transportation bond passes

Tuesday's passage of the Johnson County transportation bond makes possible substantial infrastructure, safety and transportation improvements both soon and far into the future, county leaders said Wednesday morning.

"The thing is, these projects that are going to start getting underway in the near future because of this bond are going to benefit county transportation and make things safer and address transportation needs as we continue to grow," County Commissioner Kenny Howell said. "More important is that these projects are going to positively impact the county for years to come to the benefit of our kids and grandkids down the road."

Voters approved the proposed $60 million transportation bond Tuesday with 42,026 voting in favor and 31,955 against.

Commissioners Court called for the bond election earlier this year to address growth and future road needs.

A committee of county and city residents used a recently completed master thoroughfare plan to identify transportation needs and projects throughout the county, Johnson County Public Works Director Jennifer Vanderlaan said in explaining how projects were chosen.

Such projects include railroad crossing improvements, feasibility and alignment studies for several south and west corridors, major east and west arterial improvements and safety and mobility improvements.

The bond will increase the county's I&S tax rate by less than a penny or add about $24.92 in additional costs on an average taxable home value of $251,707 as of 2024.

Although commissioners could have issued certificates of obligation bonds, they decided instead to let voters decide the matter, Vanderlaan said.

"This will allow the county to advance projects in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation and the North Central Texas Council of Governments, County Judge Chris Boedeker said.

The identified projects, to be addressed over the next few decades, will cost substantially more than $60 million but the bond funds will help the county leverage $60 million into about $500 million of road projects through grant funding opportunities and those partnership opportunities with state and federal agencies, county officials said.

The bond funds will allow the county to render the projects — some of which are on TxDOT's radar, some of which are not — shovel ready for construction. Bond funds will allow county officials to address such pre-construction needs as environmental studies, right-of-way acquisition, utility relocations and other matters to allow TxDOT to move straight to construction and ultimate maintenance responsibility for such projects, county officials said.

"The goal of this bond is to get everything ready for TxDOT to come in and spend money on construction," County Engineer Colt Friedrich said. "Our goal is to do the upfront items. And, by doing that, it will help advance TxDOT's construction timeline by years."

Commissioner Rick Bailey spoke of the team effort on the part of county, city and other officials along with county residents to spread word of the purpose of the bonds.

"I thank everyone who voted to support the bond," Bailey said. "Those who opposed it will also benefit once the dollars are allocated and we start seeing projects moving."

Bailey cited a similar bond Hunt County voters approved in 2015.

"That was for $24 million," Bailey said. "To date, they've spent $12 million of those funds and have received $480 million in state funds, TxDOT funding. That's an example of what we will be enjoying in regards to what this bond will make possible for mobility improvements in our county."

Howell said he's pleased that voters approved the bond proposition by "a pretty good number."

"Which makes me think that people are interested in building infrastructure and the future of our county," Howell said. "Frankly, I was a little worried going into Tuesday because of things on Facebook from some and the fact that I think all these multi-million dollar school bond requests have kind of turned bonds into a bad word for a lot of people. I was still pretty confident this would pass but I was pleasantly surprised that it passed by the margin it did."

Howell said he feels confident that ongoing county growth will outpace the penny difference and allow commissioners to keep the county's property tax rate steady or even lower it in the immediate years ahead.

"I'm excited to see what we can do now that we'll be able to leverage that $60 million into several hundred million and really get some of these needed projects done," Howell said.

Boedeker said wide ranging benefits will flow from the bond.

"We always talk about how Johnson County is a great place to live, work and raise a family," Boedeker said. "To those ends, we've consistently invested in our law enforcement, infrastructure and economic development. These bonds will touch on all those things."

Safer, more accessible roads will benefit first responders as well as everyone else, Boedeker said.

"It's also direct investment into our infrastructure with hopefully attracting $400 million to half a billion additional dollars into the county, which is going to spur additional economic development."

With the exception of three feasibility studies planned — including a loop around Godley and the southern portion of Cleburne to redirect heavy truck traffic — most of the planned projects should occur within a 10-year window.

"There's planning and so forth but I think we should see movement on projects in the next year and a half to two year with a flurry of activity in the two to four years following that," Boedeker said. "Most of these are in the five to 10 year range. TxDOT funds their projects five years in advance. So, if we sell the first round of bonds around April say we'll start planning immediately and start feeding the larger projects into TxDOT's five to seven year funding plan so that they can get funded as each new year is released."