Lubbock council approves $14.9 million in seven-year tax notes for vehicles and public-safety radio upgrade

The Lubbock City Council on June 23 approved an ordinance authorizing roughly $14.9 million in seven-year tax notes to reimburse the city for large vehicles, heavy equipment and a public-safety radio system upgrade approved in the FY2025-26 budget.

City finance staff said the package covers three fire pumpers at about $1 million each, a $400,000 brush truck, about eight rolloff trucks in the “upper $300,000” range and a radio-system capital project listed at $6.1 million. "These are large vehicles and equipment that we purchase...they typically have a lifespan longer than seven years," said Joe Aimenez, the staff presenter.

RBC (represented in the record as "Mr. BS") summarized a private-placement competitive bid process that produced a winning bid with a 3.92% rate and an all-in true-interest cost (TIC) of about 4.0782%. He described the financing as a seven-year, private-placement note that is callable — the accepted structure included call optionality at 101% through 7/15/2030 and par thereafter. "We ran an all-in TIC...that's just a shade over 4% at 4.0782%," he said.

City staff said the radio-system project will expand infrastructure and add another tower to improve reliability as the metropolitan area grows; they also said other public entities that use the radio system — EMS, city transit and other organizations — will pay a portion of the cost, covering roughly half of project utilization.

Council had no further questions and voted to approve the ordinance unanimously. The tax notes are structured as short-term, callable debt intended to provide repayment flexibility and to match the expected useful life of the capital purchases. The council record shows the financing presentation and the vote; the meeting minutes will provide final adopted ordinance language and any implementing documents filed with the attorney general.