Capital Delivery Services lays out framework for 2026 general-obligation bond program

Capital Delivery Services on Thursday presented the Bond Oversight Commission with the department's framework for developing the City of Austin's proposed 2026 general-obligation (G.O.) bond program.

Marcus Hammer, assistant director with Capital Delivery Services, told commissioners the department was created in 2023 to reduce project delivery time and to convene asset-owner departments so projects have realistic scopes, schedules and budgets. "We were created in 2023, really with the goal of reducing project delivery time," Hammer said.

The presentation summarized staff work completed over the last year: a citywide needs assessment initially totaling about $10.4 billion, department-level prioritization that produced a 6-year feasible list of roughly $4.4 billion and an early financial estimate from Financial Services that the G.O. program could be nearer $750 million for the 2026 cycle. "From that, we asked the departments to say, okay, now that we've got your big umbrella, how can we pare that back to what could potentially even be done within a 6-year bond cycle?" Hammer said.

Why it matters: General-obligation bonds fund large capital items the city does not typically pay for from operations, including major street repairs, flood and erosion control, parks and public-safety facilities, and land acquisition. How staff vet and prioritize projects now will determine which projects are presented to voters if council calls a bond election.

Key elements of the proposed process

- Guiding principles and alignment: CDS said it used the citywide strategic plan''s adopted anchors as the basis for bond guiding principles; departments adapted those anchors into department-specific technical criteria and scoring matrices with a 100-point scale.

- Earlier vetting: Hammer said the department's goal is to shift detailed scoping, scheduling and budgeting earlier in the process so projects are better defined before they appear on a voter package. "If you focus just on that big long yellow box ... projects were just sort of hand selected and a lot of the planning effort didn't happen until after they were voted on," Hammer said. The new approach moves that work to the front end so some projects can begin design or construction immediately if funded.

- Project charters and scoring: CDS staff described project charters that collect GPS coordinates, scope, cost, climate and other data to feed prioritization and to identify inter-project conflicts or opportunities. Departments scored inventory items and presented those scores to the Bond Election Task Force (BTIF) for review.

- Public engagement and schedule: CDS launched a bond 2026 page on SpeakUp Austin and a phase-one community survey to collect public priorities. Staff expect an initial project list in July and additional community engagement in the fall; BTIF is scheduled to return recommendations in early 2026. Hammer said council would likely be asked to call a bond election in July or August 2026 for a November 2026 ballot, depending on required notice timelines.

Questions from commissioners

Commissioners pressed how much scoping would be required for projects to appear on the initial list and whether the public or BTIF could add uns-scoped projects. Hammer said departments are vetting prioritized projects and CDS is doing initial planning and scoping on prioritized items now; submissions from the public are assigned to departments for eligibility review and scoping evaluation.

Commissioners also asked how the city's "cap-and-stitch" prioritization (an ongoing budget discussion) would affect feasibility. Hammer said including cap-and-stitch priorities would reduce the dollars available to the G.O. program and is being evaluated by Financial Services.

What remains unresolved

Staff emphasized that the needs list far exceeds anticipated funding and that the final program size and internal allocation to departments (transportation, parks, public safety, etc.) must be decided through the public process and council direction. CDS described several forthcoming deliverables: department scoring matrices provided to BTIF, the July initial project list with dollar figures, and continued working-group review of project charters.

Ending: Staff said they had completed dozens of interdepartmental meetings and would return with the prioritized project list and additional materials next month. "We've had a ton of work ... probably getting closer to the 50 meetings of collaborating and working together at this point," Hammer said; he invited commissioners and the public to the BTIF process and the SpeakUp Austin portal for input.