Two candidate slates vie for Leander City Council

Two distinct candidate slates have emerged in this election for three Leander city council seats.

Kathryn Pantalion-Parker, Jason Shaw, and Chris Czernek represent the continuing fiscal accountability and transparency mandate inaugurated last year by Leander voters who elected Troy Hill to the mayoral seat, and Marci Cannon and Christine Sederquist to the city council.

The second slate is comprised of four-year incumbent council member Jeff Seiler, joined by Laura Lantrip and Becki Ross.

In June 2018, former Mayor Christopher Fielder and four incumbent council members, including Mr. Seiler, steamrolled Leander homeowners with a vote that would require $15M in new, taxpayer-backed bonds to fund the high-risk, private Northline development. The commitment to issue combination Tax and Revenue Certificates of Obligation was thrust on Leander taxpayers without a public election.

As of this date, the developer has neither secured partners nor broken ground. The first debt service payment of $471,975.00, requiring approximately 2% of every Leander homeowner’s city property tax, comes due September 30, 2019.

Although Leander has exploded in rooftops over the past four years during which Mr. Seiler has served, this has not translated into a magnifying increase in sales tax revenue, which is the true economic engine for a city that needs to control its destiny.  Without the much needed sales tax which should draw from a broader geographic footprint than just those residing within Leander city limits, the larger burden of financing essential government functions falls on homeowners in the form of property taxes.

Root causes of Leander’s stunted sales tax growth are 1) burdensome, inconsistent ordinances and permitting which have frustrated businesses, and, 2) Leander relinquishing 50% of its sales tax revenue to Cap Metro (cumulative $32M over the past 9 years).

As a consequence, Leander’s sales tax revenue has languished well under $100 per capita each year for the past 10 years, while the neighboring cities of Cedar Park, Round Rock, and Georgetown sales tax revenue per-capita has averaged well over 4.5X that of Leander, every year. And that delta continues to expand.

This also explains why Leander homeowners pay a property tax rate that is:

        • 10% more than Liberty Hill
        • 23% more than Cedar Park
        • 25% more than Austin
        • 31% more than Round Rock
        • 31% more than Georgetown

Mr. Seiler has had adequate time to drive policy changes that would make Leander a serious economic player, rather than a community habitually played by outside special interests, and even some  inside.

One of those course corrections would be holding the city manager to a higher level of performance standards and accountability. Consider the following quotes from the city manager in his annual budget cover letter to the mayor and city council for the past five years:

“Although we are behind in sales tax per capita comparisons with other Texas cities, we believe that the way to climb up that ladder is with continued emphasis on infrastructure improvements, targeted economic development strategies and an emphasis on supporting quality growth.”

Leander City Manager Kent Cagle, Cover letter to Leander City Council, Annual Budget FY 2014-2015

“Although we are behind in sales tax per capita comparisons with other Texas cities, we believe that the way to climb up that ladder is with continued emphasis on infrastructure improvements, targeted economic development strategies and an emphasis on supporting quality growth.”

Leander City Manager Kent Cagle, Cover letter to Leander City Council, Annual Budget FY 2015-2016

“Although we are behind in sales tax per capita comparisons with other Texas cities, we believe that the way to climb up that ladder is with continued emphasis on infrastructure improvements, targeted economic development strategies and an emphasis on supporting quality growth.”

Leander City Manager Kent Cagle, Cover letter to Leander City Council, Annual Budget FY 2016-2017

“Although we are behind in sales tax per capita comparisons with other Texas cities, we believe that the way to climb up that ladder is with continued emphasis on infrastructure improvements, targeted economic development strategies and an emphasis on supporting quality growth.”

Leander City Manager Kent Cagle, Cover letter to Leander City Council, Annual Budget FY 2017-2018

“Although we are behind in sales tax per capita comparisons with other Texas cities, we believe that the way to climb up that ladder is with continued emphasis on infrastructure improvements, targeted economic development strategies and an emphasis on supporting quality growth.”

Leander City Manager Kent Cagle, Cover letter to Leander City Council, Annual Budget FY 2018-2019

Is this the level of performance taxpayers should reward with a 3% salary raise? Mr. Seiler thought so.

Is this the level of performance voters should reward with an additional term?

Early voting begins Monday, April 22 – Tuesday, April 30, with Election Day on Saturday, May 4th.  Leander residents have an opportunity decide whether to queue up a new playlist, or, remain content with a broken record.

 

Copyright © 2019 Don Stroud