County asking for $150 million bond during November election

LPR staff

Last month, Caldwell County Commissioners approved an Order calling for a bond election on Nov. 5 for its Capital Improvement Plan for $150 million for the purposes of “designing, acquiring, demolishing, constructing, developing, extending, expanding, upgrading, renovating, improving, repairing, and maintaining roads, bridges, and highways within Caldwell County.”

Capital Improvement Plan Open Houses were held earlier this summer in Lockhart and Luling, hosted by American Structure Point.

The estimated maximum annual increase according to the county in taxes on a residential homestead will be $40 on a $100,000 homestead, or $0.04 tax rate increase, although in the Caldwell County publication “Notice of Meeting to Vote on Tax Rate” for 2024 published in the Lockhart Post-Register on Sept. 2, the average homestead value is listed as as $301,795. The additional tax (at $0.04) on the average homestead listed as $301,795 would be $120.71 per year.

Countywide taxes will increase through the addition of the voter approved ESD #5 tax of $0.10, and if you live in one of the new Municipal Utility Districts you will be paying a MUD tax of $0.95 which compares to the Lockhart Independence School tax rate of $0.9569. In the Sept. 10, 2024 meeting of the Commissioners Court, commissioners approved a tax rate of $0.4391. NOTE: These figures are presumed growth in taxable values.

The estimated combined principal and interest required to pay on time and in full over 25 years would be $263,042,277.

The projects involved should the bond election pass include the following:

* W. San Antonio Street – corridor study from SH 130 to US 183

* Borchert Drive/Loop – SH 142 to Black Ankle Road

* City Line Road – W. San Antonio to Old Fentress Road

* SH 142 – SH 130 to TX 180

* SH 142 – Borchert Lane to Windsor Boulevard

* FM 20/US 183 – South Medina Street to South Commerce Street

* William Pettus Road (CR 238) – SH 21 to SH 142

* US 183 Turn Lane Addition – Magnolia Avenue to Plum Creek

* Bridge Replacements – Countywide

* Low Water Crossings – Countywide

* Bridle Path – US 183 to FM 2984

* Fm 2720 to Grist Mill Road – SH 21 to Fm 720

* Rocky Road at SH 21 – SH 21 to Misty Drive

* FM 2001 at SH 21 – Rohde Road to FM 2001

* Schuelke Road at SH 21 – SH 21 to Schuelke Road

* Holz Lane at S 21 – SH 21 to reconnection at Holz Lane

* North Hackberry Avenue (US 183) Turn Lane Addition – SH 80 to East Pierce Street

* NW River Road (CR 103)

* Niederwald Transportation Plan

* Luling Transportation Plan

* CR 174, CR 179, and CR 182

* SH 180 – corridor study from County Line to US 180 (Magnolia Avenue-Luling)

A Capital Improvement Plan lays out the financing, location, and timing for capital improvement projects, usually consisting of one or more CIP projects which are financed through a capital budget or county bonds.

The projects will be needed as Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) estimates the number of jobs in Caldwell County will grow in population to 104,000 by 2045, a 243 percent growth from the current population of 42,817.

Early voting begins Monday, Oct. 21 and ends on Friday, Nov. 1. Early voting by mail must be received no later than 5 p.m., Oct. 25, to the Elections Administrator Devante Coe, at 1503 Blackjack St., Suite A, in Lockhart.