City and County Notes | February 2010

By Melissa Mixon Friday, 19 February 2010

Cedar Park

WILLIAMSON COUNTY — Cedar Park Councilman will not seek re-election

Place 6 Cedar Park City Councilman Cobby Caputo announced in late January that he will not seek another term in the upcoming May elections.

Caputo, who served on the council from 1996 to 2002 and then ran again in May 2005, said he would say more about his decision at a later time, but that he wanted to get the news out before the council called an election in May.

“I certainly enjoyed the heck out of the last five years, and if I didn’t have phenomenal amounts of work to do ... I wouldn’t have a second thought about running again, but it’s time to step aside,” he said.

Caputo is a private practice attorney whose work revolves around complex litigation, including civil rights and constitutional claims, according to the city.

Caputo decided not to seek re-election in 2002, but after watching government from the sidelines, he ran for an unexpired term in May 2005.

Veterans Memorial Park

The public will have a chance to view five memorial art pieces that are proposed for the 48–acre Veterans Memorial Park at 2525 New Hope Drive.

The artwork varies, one is of an eagle next to the American flag and another is of a man and a woman who represent branches of the military, but the goal of each is to honor past and present troops.

Bob Carter, president of the Veterans Memorial Citizen Advisory, said 16 proposals for the artwork were submitted and narrowed down to the current five. The art will be paid for with funds raised by the group, which has already collected $60,000 of the $100,000 total.

Carter said renderings of the artwork will be available for public viewing until early March at the city’s public library, City Hall and the Cedar Park Recreation Center.

Leander

Leander State of the City

Leander Mayor John Cowman said during his State of the City address

Feb. 2 that Leander is doing well, with sales tax revenue increasing steadily and the development of several big projects in the city. He did say, however, that the troubled national economy has caused residential growth in Leander to slow.

“We knew we couldn’t keep growing at 23 percent,” he said, referring to the city’s annual growth in the past few years.

However, Cowman said several big retail projects have boosted sales tax, including the 25,000-sq.-ft. H-E-B Plus!, the Gateway at Leander shopping center and Lowe’s.

The city’s sales tax, at more than

$1.7 million, is up over last year’s, which has helped to make up for the drop in residential permits.

Cowman listed several successes in the city, including its A+ bond rating and its participation in the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority, a partnership among Leander, Cedar Park and Round Rock to secure water for the cities over the next 50 years. Cowman also praised city staff and council members for not raising taxes this year. The council voted in September to lower the tax rate to 60.042 per $100 of assessed value, meaning owners of average value homes pay $11 less on tax bills.

“It’s because we could do it, and it was the right thing to do,” Cowman said.

Williamson County

County lifts Freeport tax

Williamson County commissioners voted Jan. 20 to remove the Freeport tax, in an effort to bring tax relief to companies in the county and to lure more businesses.

“There have been several companies looking to relocate, but they were waiting in the wings to see what the court did with this,” said Precinct 2 Commissioner Cynthia Long.

Freeport property is defined as goods, wares, merchandise and other tangible personal property acquired in Texas or brought into Texas and held here 175 days or less before being shipped out of the state. The property must be in the state for assembling, storing and manufacturing, among other things.

Both Cedar Park and Leander voted to remove the city’s portion of the tax and now, with the county’s portion removed, city officials hope it will spur development.

Officials are pushing for Leander ISD to eliminate its portion of the tax, which would make Cedar Park and Leander “triple Freeport” cities.