For years elected officials have talked about and agreed that our water plant is in serious need of some repairs and at risk of failing hundreds of thousands of people. Millions of dollars have been squandered by past elected officials, some still sitting today, on frivolous projects instead of performing the needed repairs on our main water plant. Now the decision has to be made to issue the nearly $100 million dollars worth of debt that tax payers will be on the hook for or vote it down. The pay back would be 30-40 years and a whopping $164 million dollars. Certificates of Obligation are paid back by property taxes or other local revenues. The issuance of this debt would almost certainly lead to many property tax increases over a 40 year period along with some water rate increases unless paid back quickly.
An alternative to issuing this debt is for City Council and City Management to be responsible stewards of the people’s money and use the funds they have available to pay for the plant repairs without issuing this debt. The city recently received 21.8 million dollars from Biden’s American Rescue Plan that could be applied to the plants repairs, receives about $15 million dollars per year from the Pioneer Energy Contract for the purchase of the cities wastewater and Odessa Development Corporation could contribute $20 million dollars to the repairs, it is your sales tax dollars anyway. This is half of what the project will cost and the rest can be made up from the general fund and future Pioneer revenue. The repairs can be done without issuing more debt or raising property taxes and water rates. The problem with this plan is that Tom Sprawls, Detra White, Steve Thompson and Mari Willis , current City Council members, want to use the available monies on “fun or frivolous projects” rather than the water treatment plant.
There is little doubt that the water treatment plant must be repaired sooner than later. The question is how the repairs are paid for. Do we allow a 40 year payout or do we replace some of our current city council members and elect some help for our conservative members that are trying to do the right by their constituents? If debt has to be written to do these repairs then I say vote Sprawls, Willis and White out of office, Dave Ramsey up and pay this debt off in less than 5 years so that the repairs can be made without raising peoples taxes and water rates. These millions of dollars that are available should be allotted to the water project. There should be no more pet projects or frivolous spending until the basic needs of the people are met.
People have mixed feelings about this project and do not know who or what to believe, only that they do not want to be without water. Odessa’s City Council will vote on this issue July 27th, 2021. If you are for this debt then make sure to hold your council members accountable in how they pay it back. If you are against the debt you may sign a petition at any one of the following locations prior to July 27th.
The locations are:
Paul Evans Flooring 301 N Grant
Jack Jordon’s BBQ 1501 JBS Parkway
Mama’s Kitchen 1534 E 8th St
Jack Bain CPA 5101 Wayland Drive
Custom Wholesale Supply 2324 Kermit Hwy
WOW! Fashion Warehouse 815 N Grandview
Crow Insurance 3908 Tanglewood
Walker Air Conditioning 5402 Andrews Hwy