Houston BOMA believes that the City of Houston should maintain adequate resources to ensure that the City’s streets and drainage systems are sustained at levels in keeping with a world-class city.  BOMA also supports dedicating funds to drainage and street repair.  Additionally, BOMA believes that in tandem with such a fund, a well-developed plan for fee collection and spending should be in place prior to the consideration of any such initiative. 

BOMA is opposed to Proposition 1, which will be considered by the voters on November 2, for the following reasons:

1)      There are no guidelines in place for how the additional fees collected will be spent.

2)      No priority or direction has been revealed for correcting Houston’s flooding, drainage or street repair problems. At this time, the initiative is simply a money collection device for the City.

3)      This initiative including the petition and ballot language was developed and funded by civil engineers who will be the beneficiaries of the fund for the life of the fund.

4)      No information has been provided on how much money is required to meet the City’s needs or who will pay what amount. This initiative has been placed on the ballot and the City Council will determine the amount of the fees that will be assessed to Houstonians  AFTER THE VOTE.  This includes commercial real estate, parking lots, vacant land, schools, churches and homes. No one is exempt.  

5)      The initiative creates a fund that exists for 20 years. If not canceled by a 2/3 vote of City Council, the plan will continue for additional 20 year periods.  New taxes are rarely, if ever repealed.