Council approves $16.2 million tax notes to finance vehicles, airport projects and cemetery irrigation

The Lubbock City Council on May 13, 2025 unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing issuance of tax notes to finance city vehicle and equipment purchases, airport projects and a new cemetery irrigation system.

Joe Jimenez, city finance staff, briefed the council and said the city was seeking to appropriate $16,200,000 in tax notes to cover the purchases. Jimenez told the council, “5,600,000.0 of those will be used for the airport projects, 2,000,000 for the cemetery irrigation system, and then 8,560,000.00 for your large vehicles and equipment.” He said the notes carry a seven-year term to match the useful life of the equipment and that issuance costs were projected at about $80,000.

Jimenez reported the city received bids from four banks and one nonconforming bidder; Webster Bank submitted the winning competitive bid with a stated interest rate of about 3.695 percent and an all-in TIC of about 3.83 percent after fees. He told the council that unutilized prior tax-note savings of about $1,300,000 reduced the total amount needing issuance from an original $18,000,000 to about $16,100,000.

Council members asked no substantive follow-up questions during the briefing. Mayor Pro Tem moved to approve the item and Mr. Rose seconded; the motion carried unanimously.

City staff said these purchases were already approved in the fiscal 2024–25 budget and that the tax notes are the financing mechanism chosen to spread costs over several years rather than imposing a single-year budget hit. Finance staff also noted the city retains the option to call the notes early if excess reserves become available in fiscal 2028.