City Entices Growth?

There is an interesting op-ed in the Wilco Sun that many Georgetown citizens are concerned about the rapid growth of the City and that the City Council is encouraging that growth by offering incentives to businesses to move to Georgetown.

Whatever the reason, our city government seems to be regularly over-welcoming businesses, offering economic incentives so they’ll come. The panicky sounding excuse is, “If we don’t accommodate them they’ll go somewhere else.”

Well, maybe it would be a good idea if they did. It seems that a lot of people are complaining about too much growth. With that in mind, why would the city council not only welcome more industry, but actually give them perks to come here? Someone must be benefiting, but it’s not the average Joe.

Even if the economic pitch doesn’t assuage anyone, there’s always the old growth-is-inevitable argument. “You can’t stop people from coming,” those in power say with helpless resignation. And I might agree. But we don’t have to offer them economic bonuses so they will. That really negates the gee-we-just-can’t-keep-them away argument.

What's the solution? The author suggests that citizens get out and vote at every opportunity. Vote for those candidates that are concerned about growth, water availability, local public safety, and local traffic.

Sounds like good advice!

Buckthorn Solar Photos

Here are photos of the Buckthorn photovoltiac farm that Georgetown has contracted for electric energy. It is located near Imperial, Tx, North of Ft Stockton, Tx.

The farm uses single axis trackers to maximize the solar radiation.

Click on the photos to enlarge!

NRG Solar Photovoltiac Facility Sold!

The solar photovoltiac facility that supplies Georgetown has been sold again! NRG Yield has sold the facility to a "newly created company" called Clearway.

"San Francisco, CA—Friday, August 31, 2018— Clearway Energy Group (“Clearway”) began operations today as an independent enterprise. The Company was formed with the completion of the sale of NRG Energy, Inc.’s (“NRG”) renewables platform and NRG’s controlling interest in NRG Yield, Inc. to Global Infrastructure Partners (“GIP”), a leading global, independent infrastructure investor. The transaction was initially announced in February 2018." Clearway

I had been previously announced in July 2018 that NRG had transferred the Buckthorn solar facility to NRG Yield.

NRG and NRG Yield entered into Purchase and Sale Agreements for NRG Yield to purchase NRG’s interest in the following ROFO pipeline assets: 527 MW Carlsbad Energy Center and 154 MW Buckthorn Solar for additional cash proceeds of $407 million, subject to certain adjustments.

Again, no acknowledgement from the city of Georgetown about this ownership change and if there is any effect on the contract for electricity.

Roof Top Solar Costs

Georgetown is pursuing a commercial and residential roof top solar program as a way to wean Georgetown away from purchasing electricity from ERCOT(Feb.22, 2018 GeorgetownWatchDog). The existing city contracts with NRG and EDF Renewable Energy do not provide sufficient electricity during high demand periods to allow the City to credibly claim it is totally "green" energy.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL) has calculated the levelized cost of electricity for photovoltaic systems without subsidies and found the following:

Residential: 12.9 to 16.7 cents per KwHr
Commercial: 9.2 to 12.0 cents per KwHr
Utility Scale: 4.4 to 6.6 cents per KwHr

Given these unsubsidized costs, the City must perform a payback or breakeven analysis and share the results with the citizens of Georgetown before they commit to roof top solar!

Georgetown ISD Plans More Debt

Georgetown ISD has developed a plan and advocacy to impose more debt on the school taxpayers. They are advocating for $166M in new debt, $150.5M for new schools, buses and refurbishment of existing buildings, and $15.5M for a swim facility. 

The GISD management says that tax rates will be held constant, but, property taxes will increase because the appraised value of homes and businesses are increasing at a 6% annual rate. However, the debt payment on existing debt has been increasing at a 10.7% annual rate.

So additional debt and debt service is to be added and the tax rate can remain constant? If so, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell the GISD!

The justification for this debt binge is the growth in student enrollment. Let's examine the historical student growth rate in GISD.

Notice that over the past 6 years, a "high growth" period, the annual growth rate is just over 2%. The District management consistently over estimates the student growth. For instance, they predict student enrollment of 13,800 in 2022 and 16,900 in 2027. Where as a projection at the historical rate would yield approximately 12,500 in 2022 and 13, 875 in 2027.

There has been no rationale or information presented that would justify a large increase in student enrollment rate over that experienced the last 6 years.

So is the need for this additional bond money premature? The voters must decide, but, they need all the relevant facts presented to them!

ESD#8 Taxes Going Up!

Well, that didn't take long! ESD#8 has indicated they are voting September 12 to increase the tax rate by 12.44%. The only surprise is that the increase is not greater since they have agreed to pay Georgetown Fire $2.3M for fire services which is a 42.7% increase over the current fee.

The total tax revenue to be collected by ESD#8 for the next fiscal year is $3.222M.

If you are affected by this proposed property tax rate increase, voice your concerns at the next ESD#8 board meeting to be held Wednesday, September 12 at 3500 DB Wood Rd in Georgetown at 6pm.

Georgetown Staff Growth

The FY-2019 budget approved by the City Council authorizes 31 new city staff positions. 15 of those are in the Fire Department and the remainder are primarily scattered through out the administrative departments. Here is the long term trend.

Thus we see the 7 year trend for increasing city staff is about 4.3% annually.

Compare this with the population growth rate of 3.6% annually over the last 10 years.

The obvious question is: Why is the number of city staff increasing at a higher rate than the general population over the long term?

I don't have an answer, do you?

High Utility Bills?

Did you know that Georgetown owns the utility systems here in town? Georgetown City Council requires that these utility companies and other entities make a profit over and above the cost to deliver the service to residents. Here is the chart presented in the budget workshop in August, 2018.

The City expects the utilities and others to generate $9.0M in profit in 2019 which will be shifted to the City's General Fund to be spent on whatever the Council desires.

This is a stealth tax! The average taxpayer/ratepayer does not realize they are paying more for the services than it costs to provide them. Excess money is taken from the ratepayer by the City, just like a direct tax, only it is hidden behind terms like "Return on Investment"(ROI). 

If you don't think the City should be a profit making organization, let your council members know! Tell them to cut your utility rates so that revenue equals cost and you get to decide where to spend more of your money.

Georgetown Budget Growing at 10%+

The City, like all financial organizations like to "cherry pick" the numbers to show the best possible picture. The City touts that the 2019 budget growth is only 5%, and that is true year over year. But, on a longer trend, say 5 years, the annual growth is twice that. Here are the numbers from the city's financial documents.

The peculiar hump in 2017 is likely due to about $35M in capital expenditures for waste water facilities and Garey Park.

Needless to say, 10.18% annual growth significantly exceeds the metric of population growth plus inflation.

ESD#8 Is Paying Georgetown More, Because It Can

The Georgetown Fire Chief has been looking to continue the growth of his department's budget. First he convinced the City Council to take the award winning EMS from Williamson County, make it a city fire department responsibility, and he is well on his way to making the EMS profitable by instituting fees and effective collection of money from insurance companies.

Now he has come up with a justification for increasing the payment from ESD#8 for fire services. In fact, ESD #8 will increase its payment to Georgetown by 42.7% due to this change in methodology. ESD #8s annual payment will increase from $1,611,608 to $2,300,000. That's a whopping $688,392 increase.

How did the Chief accomplish this magical feat? He hired a contractor, Emergency Services Consulting International, to come up with a rationale for the massive increase in revenue to Georgetown Fire Department. Here is the key take-away for the taxpayers of ESD#8!

Current ESD revenue streams are not expected to provide adequate funding in the future. Given the expectations of the District, it is projected that ad valorem taxes alone will not provide adequate funding to sustain fire protection services at desired delivery levels. It is imperative that the District consider securing additional revenue through alternative sources such as the adoption and collection of fees and/or sales and use tax to meet future service level expectations and debt service obligations.

ESD#8 taxpayers better get prepared for increased costs, either through increased property taxes or increased fees or even imposition of sales taxes.

It is extremely doubtful that the taxpayers of ESD #8 will experience an increase in level of service commensurate with the increased payment to Georgetown. Increased service only comes with decreased response times which means more fire stations and crews, which this methodology does not provide.

Are Contractors Ripping Off Georgetown?

Georgetown is preparing to entertain bids for a new fire station on Williams Drive near FM3405. The City has budgeted $5M for the construction of the building.

That estimate does not include the land which is being furnished by ESD#8.

The two story fire station with community room is 11,125 square feet in size.

Using an on-line construction cost estimator gives the following result:

Notice this estimate assumes construction in the Austin area using the "high" cost index.

We see the costs should be about $2.1M. Adding a 10% architect fee would only increase the costs to about $2.3M.

The City is estimating costs to be about $425/sf while the estimator indicates the costs should be about $190/sf.

Why is the City budgeting $5M for a $2.1M-$2.3M fire station?

So, what is going on? Is the City getting ripped off?