Let Baytown Vote

04/09/2021

We won. Our property taxes will no longer be collateral for the convention center as City Council just rescinded the Notice of Intent to issue Certificates of Obligation.

With the COs off the table, this petition is no longer valid or necessary. Thank you to all that signed up and shared!

04/05/2021

Important Update!

Baytown City Council will consider repealing the Notice of Intent to Issue Certificates of Obligation that are at the center of this petition this coming Thursday. This is the next step of the process of transitioning from CO's to revenue bonds for the Convention Center.

City Manager Rick Davis said that research revealed this is actually the predominant way projects such as these are financed and in the Baytown Sun article this past weekend, Mayor Brandon Capetillo said from a legal standpoint this deal is cleaner.

Property owners should never be the backstop for a Hotel/Convention Center - if this item passes City Council and the MDD approves the revenue bonds then we won't be and this petition will end as a success.

This is a direct result of the petition so thank you all for taking the time to sign up and be a part of this! Stay tuned for more updates later this week.

03/13/2021

City of Baytown officials came out swinging against this petition in the local paper today. With City Manager Rick Davis stating that you are being lied to and Brandon Capetillo, Mayor of Baytown feeling like what has been posted is full of false information.

What has been posted that is not factual? The brands that have backed away from this deal? Millions of dollars having already been spent? That there hasn't been a shovel of dirt moved? The increased costs that City Council just approved a little over a week ago? That the City did not release its Hotel / Motel projects as part of its annual budget this year? Or that your taxes are collateral for the convention center?

It is a shame they would attempt to cast doubt on facts and discourage voters from having a say in Baytown's future.

Officials also attacked the timing of the petition noting that this project has been in the works for years and millions of dollars have been spent. We are simply following the legal requirements on timing. A better question that city officials should be asking themselves is why they did not go to voters years ago at the start of this process before spending those millions of dollars?

We are thankful that the City has finally revealed publicly that they have spent $6.3M to date on this and continue to hope that they will promote increased transparency by sharing the full contents of the studies that have been done. What was shared today was a great start but there is more to come.

If you haven't had a chance to sign up for the petition yet please do so at https://LetBaytownVote.com/Pledge

03/11/2021

The City of Baytown is making your wallet the collateral for its Hotel / Convention Center project and they don't want you to have a say in the matter.

If you want to bring this to a vote, join our petition. It only takes 30 seconds at https://LetBaytownVote.com/Pledge

03/10/2021

Today we are starting a petition against the City of Baytown's proposal to issue $20,500,000 in new debt without voter approval for the purpose of constructing a convention center. In reality these bonds have a much broader impact on the City of Baytown than any other $20M or larger bond that we have looked at in the past.

In the years that the City has pursued a hotel deal on Bayland Island they have spent millions of tax dollars but have yet to move a single shovel of dirt. Hilton backed out, Marriott backed out, and now Hyatt is likely hanging on just because of the shear amount of risk that Baytown is willing to expose its taxpayers to instead of Hyatt having to bear itself.

Recently the City approved a $750,000 increase in pre-construction costs to fund work performed by contractors while the project was delayed due to market conditions. $500,000 of that came from the Municipal Development District (funded by sales tax) and $250,000 came from "city funds". The city was quick to cast doubt on which funds exactly those came from and exceptionally slow (it still hasn't happened) at clarifying. What could that $750,000 in MDD/City funds have been spent on in our communities? Has the city ignored an important project in your neighborhood? Where else has the City shifted funding sources because the Hotel / Convention Center was deemed more important? For the first time in at least 5 years, the City did not publicly share the Hotel/Motel Fund projects for Fiscal Year 2021 as part of its annual budget. Why?

At the same time that pre-construction costs increased the actual construction budgets increased an additional $3M. These are not the first of such increases and, given the way the project has been administered, may not be the last.

There is no human on Earth that can predict with certainty what will happen to the hotel industry over the next 20+ years. We do know that it can flip from good to bad almost overnight. Does another extreme event put strain on our Public Safety budgets cutting firefighters or police officers? Would Public Works be able to repair roads and fix water lines?

Baytonians deserve to know the true risks associated with this project, not just the grand dream of what it could be. And we deserve to have a say on whether we are willing to accept that risk to reach for the dream.

If you are a registered voter in the City of Baytown, please visit https://LetBaytownVote.com/Pledge to join this petition. We have a quick form to confirm your voter registration and then will have one of our petition circulators meet up with you to get your signature on paper. Please share with your family, neighbors and friends.

Let's start by confirming your eligibility to sign the petition. You must be a registered voter in the City of Baytown to sign.