THE SPECTATOR: THE CITY’S DEBT PUT INTO PERSPECTIVE

  

After Thursday’s “Spectator” program aired, a friend of mine questioned the statement I made about the City of Brenham’s debt being no greater than other cities its size.  He referred me to the State Comptroller’s website where he pointed out there are several cities the size of Brenham with less debt.  Well, he of course is correct….but there are also many cities our size that have a lot more debt.  I thanked him for pointing me in the direction of the Comptroller’s website, because the information on a page titled “Transparency…Debt at a Glance” really put into perspective the City’s debt.  One chart shows how Brenham’s tax supported debt per person has changed from 2008 to 2017.  After hearing all of the comments coming from one side of the Mayoral race about the City’s large debt, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had actually decreased by 32.9%.  That’s right.  Brenham’s tax supported debt per person has decreased almost 33% from 2008 to 2017.

So I did some research on the debt per person for cities in the state of Texas.  First, I saw that Brenham’s $33 million dollars in tax supported debt equates to $1954 per person.  I also saw the note at the bottom of the table that said for cities with municipal gas and or electric utilities, the tax supported debt may include debt for infrastructure that other cities do not have.  That is exactly the case for Brenham, where about $15 million, or about 45% of the City’s debt is for the utility department… and paid by those who use electricity or gas.  In looking at cities in our area, I found a wide range of debt per person.  Taylor, a city equal to Brenham’s size, has a debt of $2633 per person.  Bellville’s debt is $1521 per person.  Sealy’s is twice that at $3469.  Hempstead’s is $1714, Navasota’s $1476, College Station’s $2298 and Bryan’s $4932.  Addison Texas, with a population just less than Brenham’s, carries a debt load of $6378 per person, and Alvarado’s is a whopping $34,780 per person.  Brenham’s $1954 doesn’t sound so bad, now does it. On the other side of the spectrum, Orange Texas has a debt of only $756 per person.  It’s about the size of Brenham….and I don’t know about you, but I know where I would rather live.

So what did I learn?  I learned tax supported debt is all about perspective.  And I learned that people, especially in politics, can find numbers to make whatever case they wish to make, even if it’s not true.  I learned that Brenham’s debt is well within the norm for Texas cities, especially those with their own utilities.  And it’s certainly not the albatross around the necks of taxpayers that some folks make it out to be.  Perspective, and Transparency.  If you’d like to check out the Comptroller’s website yourself, we've included a link to it here.

And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.