This has been a decade of unprecedented growth in Hays County. We faced the challenges of a booming population, cuts in state funding for road improvements, and the effects of a global economic recession. I am proud to report that our county government was up to the task
Note: Pct. 3 County Commissioner Will Conley is passing around this opinion piece to local media – a real rarity for Conley who prefers conducting county business largely in private meetings, out of the public view (unless it suits him politically). We appreciate his rosy assessment of the state of the county. Next we should hold hands and start singing Kumbayah. What Conley fails to mention is that growth is tapering off in Hays County, quickly – a result of the recession. Many Hays Countians – teachers and state employees – will soon be out of a job (if they're not already) due to deep cuts in the state budget. There are reports circulating that the cuts may impact TxDOT's ability to maintain farm to market roads in rural areas, passing the costs on to the counties. There is also evidence that some of the road projects Conley mentions cannot be justified by traffic counts or population growth. Through another lens, what we might see of Conley's happy face analysis and his "Super Size It" approach to county spending are very expensive presents to developers, consultants and engineering firms, courtesy of the taxpayers.
Send your comments and questions to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Mr. Conley at will.conley@co.hays.tx.us (office, 512-847-3159) or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the page
By Will Conley
The 2010 U.S. Census numbers are in and Hays County is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds. Our current population is 157,500, up from less than 100,000 just one decade ago. With such explosive growth, it is no wonder that so much is going on in your county government.
For almost seven years, I have had the honor of serving as your county commissioner. Amidst this historic growth and despite the challenges of a global economic recession, I am happy to report that the state of our county is strong. In fact, Hays County has made tremendous progress in preparing for the future while maintaining a trim and balanced budget.We are winding down a very successful parks bond program. In 2007, voters approved an investment of $30 million to meet our growing population’s recreation needs. Now, Hays County citizens have many new parks and conservation areas to enjoy with friends and family. San Marcos enjoyed some of the largest investments, including the Purgatory Creek Preserve, Spring Lake improvements, Five Mile Dam complex, CFPO fields (off Hunter road), improvements to city tennis courts, improvements to city baseball fields, etc. Many of the projects in the San Marcos area were partnerships between Hays County and the City of San Marcos.
Our county road bond program continues to pave the way for our transportation future. In 2008, voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of a $210 million bond to improve aging roads and crowded state highways in Hays County.
About ten years ago, the state shifted the burden of improving state roadways to city and county governments. Fast growing counties like ours faced the alternatives of improving these roads ourselves or facing a future of chronic traffic congestion and roads in disrepair.
Our county made the right choice to take our transportation future into our own hands. After we approved the road bond program, I met with state officials to show them the major steps that Hays County was taking to improve state roads within its borders and successfully negotiated that the state put $134 million toward our efforts.
Today, this is touted as one of the best road improvement partnerships in the state. Moreover, the road improvement projects paid for by this bond program are under budget by millions of dollars and on schedule. This means that major roads such as Interstate 35, Ranch Road 12, the San Marcos loop (eastern section), Texas 21, and FM 1626 are undergoing improvement and Hays County taxpayers are getting a great return on their investment.
Finally, we hear a lot about taxes and spending these days. The federal government’s unrestrained spending has built a mountain of debt that is unsustainable at its current level. In stark contrast, Hays County has worked hard to target investments where they matter most by meeting the needs of a rapidly growing population. Our finances are strong. Our credit rating is excellent. Our savings run deep. We only spend what we can afford and we spend it wisely.
This has been a decade of unprecedented growth in Hays County. We faced the challenges of a booming population, cuts in state funding for road improvements, and the effects of a global economic recession. I am proud to report that our county government was up to the task. Programs that prepare for the future, like our parks and road bonds, and sound financial management, give me hope that Hays County will continue to be a great place to live and work throughout the next decade and beyond.
14 comments:
OMG did Conley really write 'After we approved the road bond program, I met with state officials to show them the major steps that Hays County was taking to improve state roads within its borders and successfully negotiated that the state put $134 million toward our efforts.' I believe the deal was negotiated before the voters went to the polls, that is how they sold the package to us. We spend 210 million (?) as Conley says and they give us back 134 million (?). He must have repeated that line during both road bond campaigns a thousand times - the one that failed in 2007 and then again in 2008. Is Conley's ego so big that he thinks he can bold face lie about the facts and we somehow can't remember what we had for breakfast that morning. Liar, liar, pants on fire.....
I smell an election year coming on strong.
Geez, Lila Knight could have written this "hunky dory" commentary.
Thanks Will! Keep up the good work. I know that some would like no government at all but then we would have anarchy and rule by vigilante. We all need to work together for the good of all of the citizens of Hays county.
Really all Commissioner Conley talks about in his love letter to
Hays County is roads. Roads are
important, yes. But Hays County's
record in services for the mentally
ill, for instance, is abysmal.
When Austin State Hospital started
booting its patients out the door a
few years ago, many of those patients had to choose between
living under a bridge in Austin or
returning to their homes of origin - like Hays County. The counties were suddenly charged with providing for mental patients who formerly had lived in mental institutions across the state. Very few counties have done anything at all for the mentally ill who have returned to them, and Hays County is among those laggards.
So, let's tout the fine roads and
forget about the unfortunates in
the shadows.
Is it just me or does Will Conley make you nauseous, too?
So apparently we are now looking for "sustainable" debt? Didn't realize that was part of the "sustainability" movement.
Since when did it become the responsibility of Hays County to provide for the less fortunate? Let your President help them since he is out to save the whole damn world at our expense. In the early days, all the County was about was law enforcement and roads. That is what they do best but people like you have tried and partially succeeded in turning it into a welfare provider. Let the churches do their part since they get exemptions from taxes, they can afford it.
Will Conley must be doing well financially, this is the only way he could be oblivious to the fact that there is another reality just around the next bend.
He is obviously unaware of the fact that so many Americans, including people in Hays County, are facing declining incomes with no prospect of them ever rising back again.
Has he not been paying attention as our ability to pay back debt is decreasing and most people are not borrowing so much?
I suppose he is sitting pretty with a cushy, well-paying county job and his carwashateria, along with all the financial "encouragements" from brokering development deals with road companies and housing interests.
He must be just not paying watching the news (or the county's own foreclosure/food bank/poverty stats), because he is clueless as to how many of us are under water out here.
I cannot imagine we will be be well-served by letting the situation deteriorate any further.
And there was probably a bonus in it for him for the great job he recently did for the Jacob's Well neighbors who threatened to ruin the water source with a bunch of condos and a road, so he got the County to buy them out a huge profit for doing nothing but sitting on property for a couple of years. And he called this one "conservation". Of what? Massive profits by some environmental extortionists?
Conley has no idea, apparently, what is going on out here in the real world. He is riding high, smelling nothing but his own success.
From Will Conley's September 15th, 2009 editorial in the San Marcos Mercury...
"As a result of the national economic recession, more people are unemployed and businesses are struggling. Families all across the county are tightening their belts and your government—at all levels—should do the same.
"Making cuts to a budget is never easy, but during tough economic times, citizens deserve a government that acts responsibly and keeps spending in check. They certainly don’t deserve tax increases that could have been avoided."
Is this the same man?
What makes this look suspiciously more like a political press release from Conley is his failure to mention the large cumulative interest payments the taxpayers will shoulder over the 20 and 30 life of the park and road bonds. The state may (or may not) pay us back $130 mil but the interest payments alone drawf that number by a lot more millions. As is the case with most self-absorbed politicians, Conley cannot seem to level with the taxpyers by providing all the relevant facts, only what he wants us to know. For now, I'll put this one in the Political BS file until proved otherwise. Thanks for the try anyway, Commissioner.
Of course this piece by Will Conley is a political press release. That is his job as a county commissioner. And maybe some things have changed since his September 15th, 2009 editorial in the San Marcos Mercury. I don't really know. In fact, no one really knows. Time will tell.
And I agree with some of the points made by Tired of the Same Ol..., but not the nonsense about the "environmental extortionists."
I know many of the people at WVWA - like Jack Hollon and Dorothy Knight. Disagree with them if you like, but they are good people.
And every one has some form of agenda: Environmental agendas, right and left wing ideological agendas, political survival agendas, competitive or jealousy agendas, and maybe the most ugly of them all - personal dislike political agendas.
Make sure you know which agendas are which, and make smart assumptions based on facts, not personal hate or unresolved animosity. Hays County will be better off is you rise above such personal pettiness.
A matter of clarification.
When I stated in my previous comment that I agree with most of what "Tired of the Same Ol' Lies" said, I meant I agree with what he or she says about such economic realities.
However, I do not believe that Will Conley is out of touch with those economic realities.
When I used the term "environmental extortionists", I was not referring to the WVWA people as the extortionists, but the developers!
Those developers (well, would-be developers, since they never developed anything) used their threat to the local environment and the fact that the Wimberley community will do just about anything to save their environmental treasures, to get a big profit out of NOT developing that land.
It is my suspicion that they never intended to develop it, just extort money from people who did not want it developed, in this case, the WVWA and Hays County.
Those developers turned a pretty profit for merely sitting on land and paying some legal fees. They even got Hays County to pay their back taxes!
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