Page 344 - HurstFY23AnnualBudget

APPROVED BUDGET FISCAL YEAR 2022-2023

This includes State & Federal grants, interlocal agreements, sales taxes, donations, and the use
of excess operating revenues to finance projects on a pay-as-you-go basis. The most frequent
debt instruments utilized by the City of Hurst are voter approved General Obligation (GO) Bonds,
Certificates of Obligations (CO), and Public Property Finance Contractual Obligations (PPFCO).
Each of these debt instruments are supported by tax revenues; however, CO’s are typically
supported by other sources of revenue such as sales taxes or utility fund revenue. By carrying
property taxes as a security for the bonds we achieve a more favorable debt rate which lowers
our overall borrowing costs even when those bonds are repaid from funds other than property
tax revenues. Examples of our primary debt instruments and alternative sources of funding for
capital projects are highlighted below.

Voter Approved General Obligation Bonds

On May 12, 2012, voters approved $16.5 million to construct a Justice Center and related parking
facilities. The facility is approximately 61,000 square feet and includes the police department and
municipal court. There is also a parking garage constructed to handle police, employee and visitor
parking. The new center opened in February 2015.

In 2019, Voters approved $7.5 million to construct a new Animal Control Center. The facility is
approximately 8,300 square feet and is co-located with a newly opened dog park. The facility
provides enough space to intake, treatment and sheltering of animals including new space for
the public to interact with the animals and for the staff to exercise animals in the shelter awaiting
adoption.

Voter Approved GO Bonds will be used in similar situations where the city is expanding and/or
replacing existing facilities or adding new facilities that are not already part of the city’s
infrastructure.

Public Property Finance Contractual Obligations

In 2020 and in 2017 the city issued short term obligations to replace fire apparatus according to
our regular replacement schedule. The life of these types of fire apparatus is expected to be 20
years and the debt was issued for a 7-year term. The rates achieved on these short-term
obligations are very favorable to the city and are structured in a way to maximize flexibility for
the city to retire the debt early should that become a priority. The city will consider PPCO’s for
similar short-term obligations that carry favorable terms, provide the city with flexibility and have
little to no impact upon the I&S debt rate.

Certificates of Obligation

In 2021, the State of Texas took legislative actions to limited city’s ability to issue CO’s in certain
circumstances; however, the City of Hurst has not used CO’s in a manner inconsistent with the

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