Stormwater bond authorization

Taxpayers League rep questioned borrowing $125 million in a high-interest period, flagged a suspicious DOT staff transfer into the DEP capital budget, and urged halving the bond or ordering an OLO study.

With the Coalition to Stop Stream Destruction, argued the money would fund failed engineered stream restorations and asked the council to restrict spending to out-of-stream stormwater controls.

Speaking for the Sierra Club, warned the bill gives the executive a reusable $125 million borrowing power without council oversight and suggested raising the Tier 7 cap on the water quality charge instead.

Argued the bill permanently transfers the power of the purse to the county executive via repeated private negotiated bond sales and questioned why no emergency justification was offered.