If Keith Self doesn't trust himself, should we?

The argument about whether or not to vote for our November County Bond comes down to one of trust. Both sides say that they’re certain money can’t be raised by any other means than by a bond package – the Commissioners say the cities need money, the Judge says the main thoroughfares need it. But both can’t be right, can they?

Well they’re both correct about who NEEDS the money, because the cities desperately need more infrastructure at the local level to handle the increase in population – McKinney, Allen, and Frisco have all grown at phenomenal rates over the last five years, and Prosper, Melissa, and Celina are expected to grow at equally high rates over the next five years.

Yet at the same time, we have a definite need for money to build up Hwy 75 north of Allen, as anyone who lives north of 121 can easily attest. The wait in traffic to arrive in Dallas at 8am from the town of Prosper already requires you to leave home at 6:30 in the morning on a good day! Let’s just imagine what five years of continued growth would do to that commute.

So it’s a question of who should the County help FIRST and who has to wait. If the cities wait, we in McKinney will have to foot a higher tax bill over the next five years to pay for an increase in municipal infrastructure. The local mayors seem ready for the challenge either way, although who wouldn’t be happy with getting half the bill when the tab is twenty million dollars?

If the highway upgrades have to wait, who’s going to foot the bill for them? The Texas Department of Transportation just spent $3 Million on a campaign to inform people that they’re out of money. Write your own joke there, but we know for certain that TxDoT is out of the picture. Can the North Texas Toll Authority pay for it? The NTTA is giving the North Texas Council of Governments $2.6 Billion to pay for expansions in the area. But counties from Waco to the Red River have submitted over $8 Billion in requests for their local projects. What’s the chance of Collin County to have Hwy 75 and surrounding projects actually receive the needed funds? Very slim, indeed.