Joshua City Council weighs roughly $10 million in bond options for street reconstruction, staff recommends May election and itemized votes

City staff presented options for a potential bond election to pay for street reconstruction and other capital projects and advised the council to consider moving a bond election from November to May and itemizing projects for voters.

Staff said the capital improvements list identifies roughly eight streets targeted for reconstruction; if the full package were sold as bonds staff estimated it would total about $10 million and would translate to a little over a 9¢ increase in the tax rate if all bonds were issued. Staff recommended delaying an election until May to combine it with an existing election, allow more time for detailed cost estimates and due diligence, and to save the city the expense of holding two separate elections.

The staff presentation proposed offering voters itemized ballot propositions for each street rather than a single omnibus amount so residents could vote for individual projects. Staff also told the council it would be prudent to phase issuance and construction — for example, completing roughly half the projects in year one and the rest the following year — to avoid overwhelming inspection and construction crews and to smooth debt service needs.

Council members raised several concerns during the discussion. Some members warned that presenting each street as a separate ballot proposition could advantage higher‑population corridors and leave smaller but heavily traveled streets without funding. Several suggested bundling streets or presenting the projects in batches so smaller streets would not be excluded by turnout and vote patterns. One councilor urged staff to provide prioritization data tied to traffic counts and condition ratings so the council could present logically grouped propositions to voters.

Staff noted that under current debt‑service schedules the city will retire just under $2 million of existing debt before 2030, and that, based on preliminary numbers, each $1 million in bonds would add roughly one penny to the tax rate. Staff said final amounts, project lists and schedules would be refined if the council directs them to pursue a bond election.

The discussion closed with staff saying they would prepare a timeline and tighter cost estimates if the council wished to continue exploring a bond election in May.