Texas county's bond election voided by judge

A Texas judge voided a Nov. 5 Hays County election that resulted in approval of nearly $440 million of general obligation bonds for road projects.

Travis County District Court Judge Catherine Mauzy ruled Monday the Hays County Commissioners Court notice for its Aug. 13, 2024, meeting, which included an item to order the bond election, violated the state open meetings act's public notice requirement. She also enjoined the county from "taking any action dependent on voter-approval" of the bonds.

A group of Hays County property taxpayers sued the county, claiming the meeting notice failed to disclose the amount of bonds, use of proceeds, and a proposed property tax increase to pay off the debt, which is in violation of the act.

A county spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, County Commissioner Walt Smith said the ruling ignored voter approval for the bonds, "thus disenfranchising them and letting them know their choice didn't matter." The $439.6 million of bonds passed with 55.7% of the vote.

Bill Aleshire, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, called the ruling a huge win for the open meetings act's enforcement.

"This serves as a warning to all elected officials that even the bigger your project is, the more important it is to show good faith compliance with the open meetings act because the consequences are drastic and they can count on being challenged," he said.

Hays County last sold unlimited tax road bonds in 2019 with a $97 million bond issue that was rated AA by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings, according to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's disclosure website. Last July, Fitch upgraded the county's GO rating to AA-plus.

In its fiscal 2024 annual comprehensive financial report, the county reported it had $472 million of outstanding GO debt as of Sept. 30.