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Brownsville staff urges selling $150 million in debt now to fast-track public safety complex amid state cap threat
Summary
City staff recommended selling $150 million immediately to secure grant matches and build priority projects — notably a new public safety complex — if proposed state legislation caps certificates of obligation, a move commissioners were asked to consider alongside a smaller, riskier alternative.
City financial staff on Tuesday told the Brownsville City Commission that a proposed state law to cap certificates of obligation would sharply reduce the city’s annual ability to issue debt and complicate its five-year capital improvement program.
Alan Guard, deputy city manager and chief financial officer, said the bill under consideration would limit certificate sales to about 20% of prior-year property tax revenue. “So whereas our previous plan … we would sell between 40 and $50,000,000 a year each of the next five years,” Guard said, “this would now restrict us to about 15,000,000 a year.” He added: “What our…
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