For those assembled for the holidays, bound together in love and obligation, stuffing and pigskin, board games are as time-honored an escape as 180-proof eggnog. And who doesn’t like Jenga, the stacking game where players take turns removing blocks from the base of a wood tower, reshuffling them precariously to the top, hoping the whole thing doesn’t collapse?
Jenga must be on the mayor’s wish list, as he raised the possibility of delaying the city’s bond elections, currently slated for a vote in May, on the same ballot as council elections. Wynn says he’s not concerned with tying his re-election campaign to the bonds – with most bonds handily passing Austin elections, this isn’t exactly Grover Norquist country – but he is concerned about whether funding for the SH 130 corridor will be in place. Hurtling down the expressway faster than anyone thought, the 49-mile toll road to Austin’s east, expected seat of Central Texas’ gathering population over the next few decades, will see its first stretch, from I-35 in Georgetown down into Pflugerville and west into Round Rock, completed in under two years. “It’s being built as we speak – or as we sit on our hands,” said Wynn. “We need it – the bad news is, we’re not ready for it.” In calling for a possible delay, as to restack the bond budget by finding additional funds for SH 130, what’s needed at this stage is a playbook – lest the whole thing come tumbling down.
Funds allotted for SH 130 development could conceivably fall into several categories – transportation, drainage, and funds for open space and affordable housing along the corridor. But the city’s Bond Election Advisory Committee, charged with hashing out the numbers, already has a large wish list and has been charged with making a recommendation to council by Jan. 26, giving council until March 6 to set a May election. The committee is moving forward with their original timetable, said outreach Chair (and former Chronicle city editor) Michael Clark-Madison. The proposal will contain items related to growth in the 130 corridor, but not a specific package of investments. “There’s not resistance on the part of the bond committee to dealing with SH 130,” said Clark-Madison, but “we don’t have much to work with.” Their bond tally began with a needs assessment of more than $769 million, and, after getting public input over the course of several meetings, it expanded to $851.5 million. Now they’ve managed – theoretically – to whittle the stack down to approximately $604 million (see insert for newest numbers). Time and money are growing scarcer, and some on the committee are concerned at the possibility of a delay. Envision Central Texas, founded by community leaders to promote responsible growth, has nine members on the BEAC and its subcommittees – good-governmenter Robin Rather, of both the Affordable Housing Subcommittee and ECT, told the Statesman that open space and affordable housing proposals fell in the “bull’s-eye zone” for their vision of the corridor.
Instead of floating the delay balloon – which might give the Envision Central Texans a pronounced case of Seasonal Affective Disorder – the city could begin shuffling the blocks themselves. The BEAC only makes recommendations, giving council all the leeway it needs in shaping the bonds. A good example is the work from affordable-housing advocates: balking at the $25 million originally slated for housing, groups like Liveable City sorted piecemeal through the budget, increasing their take to around $60 million by winning public support and appropriating pieces from elsewhere. There are other considerations in setting the bond election, however, including the May election campaign, which will see both Danny Thomas and Raul Alvarez vacating their seats and Wynn and McCracken defending theirs. With a summer break, followed by a new budget season in fall, a bond election in November may unburden May’s dais dance-card but would come awfully close to SH 130’s opening.
If the city is serious enough about 130’s future to make a massive financial investment, they need an authority dedicated to overseeing its development. For all their work, Envision Central Texas can only travel so far. With the corridor falling outside of city jurisdiction, into the nebulous realm of (largely powerless) county control, something is needed, but the mayor doesn’t know what. “I’m not excited about proposing additional government,” said Wynn of creating an SH 130 agency, but minus something to assemble Austin with Manor, Pflugerville, Round Rock, et al., he fears “haphazard, low density, far-flung development.” In other words, all that which, by investing in the corridor’s infrastructure and development, the city hoped to avoid. Still, “I don’t see that happening in a timely enough manner,” said the mayor. He asks ECT, which assembled last Saturday to discuss SH 130, for their input, saying, “My hope is they help the region figure out the next couple steps.” But if the situation is as serious as Wynn maintains, more is needed. “We either do it now, and we do it right, or we’ve lost this chance forever.” 
For more on SH 130 issues, see “Naked City.”
The Latest Figures
Median figures for the BEAC members’ individual bond recommendations, as of Nov. 22:Affordable Housing: $60.0 million
Drainage: $137.4 million
*Facilities: $205.3 million
Open space: $99.8 million
Transportation: $101.7 million
Total: $604.2 million
* (including a Central Library)
The 18 members of the BEAC have been tasked with paring $769 million in requests down to a $600 million bond package. BEAC members finished revising their totals this week, coming to a starting point for their vote on bond recommendations to City Council, which takes place next week.
This article appears in November 25 • 2005.