The purpose of a water district, such as Grand Mission Municipal Utility District No. 2 (the “District”), is to provide water supply and distribution system, sanitary sewer collection and treatment, drainage, parks, and road facilities to serve the land inside its boundaries. The District was created by the Texas Commission On Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) on September 9, 2005, and the District operates pursuant to Chapters 49 and 54 of the Texas Water Code as political subdivision of the State of Texas and a governmental entity. The creation of the District was initiated by the developer as a means of financing the construction of waterworks, sanitary sewer, drainage, parks and road facilities to serve the land within the District.
Since the early 2000’s, the District has been developed primarily as residential subdivisions known as Grand Mission Estates. The District currently consists of approximately 1,639 single-family lots, approximately 37.60-acres for commercial usage, and a middle school that results in a 2023 total taxable value of approximately $655,007,769. Development within the District is still on going and expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
In 2006, the voters of the District authorized $52,650,000 in bonds to be issued for water, sanitary sewer, and drainage improvements in the District and $8,030,000 in bonds to be issued for parks and recreation purposes. From that authorization, the District sold 10 bond issues over the years, totaling $48,435,000. However, additional water, sewer, drainage, and park infrastructure has been and is being constructed that has yet been reimbursed or will need to be paid for by the District in the future.
In August 2023, the District’s Engineer recommend that the District ask its voters for $11,100,000 in bond authorization to reimburse, rehabilitate or replace water supply and distribution facilities, wastewater treatment and collection facilities, and future improvements that may be necessary, and $7,900,00 in bond authorization to reimburse, rehabilitate, or replace parks and recreation facilities. Without additional bond authorization, necessary infrastructure projects will have to be paid from the District’s available funds, which would cause the tax rate and/or water and sewer rates to increase dramatically.
These bonds will not be issued if any such bond issuance will cause the District to raise its tax rate. The developer will not be reimbursed for facilities installed if such reimbursement would require the District to increase the tax rate. Therefore, the bonds authorized would not be issued unless doing so would not raise the District’s tax rate.