Given a choice, would you have preferred that Harris County finance some of the projects it wants to float bonds for with general revenue instead? Because that token tax cut will cost more money than several of those items on the ballot menu.

Harris County could have generated as much as $400 million over 10 years had it not cut the property tax rate by a penny last month -- money that could have been applied to pay for $880 million in bond projects being put before voters next week.

The bond projects, if all are approved, would end up costing taxpayers around $1.8 billion with interest.

Could the county have saved money had it kept the tax rate where it was and applied the $400 million in revenue to projects that could be paid for with bonds?

"It is always cheaper to pay as you go," said Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt. "But it is hard to pay for projects over $100 million without taking out bonds. But you can pay as you go on projects under $100 million."

[...]

The court approved a 1-cent decrease in the county property tax rate last month. The cut will save the average homeowner about $12 annually, according to Bettencourt, who said he does not oppose any of the county bond propositions.

The county will forgo as much as $400 million in revenue over 10 years as a result of the penny tax rate cut, said Edwin Harrison, the county's director of financial services.

Barton Smith, a University of Houston economics professor and director of its Institute for Regional Forecasting, said governments can save millions in interest by paying as they go and not relying on bonds.

But massive projects such as the $245 million jail, he said, would be hard to carry out without bonds.

"For big projects, pay-as-you-go is not an option," he said. "Money is often due in a large lump sum. But when you are talking about smaller road projects, certainly, you could pay as you go."

[...]

County Judge Ed Emmett said he did not push through the tax cut to seek favor among fiscal conservatives likely to vote in the March GOP primary.

Former District Clerk Charles Bacarisse, his opponent, called for cutting the county property tax rate five cents -- a cut that would have forced the county to forgo $817 million over five years. Bacarisse said he supports the $880 million bond packages.

Emmett said he does not believe the county would have been better off if the court had kept the existing tax rate and used the $400 million generated by that 1 cent on the tax rate to pay for the projects.

"You can always argue that," he said. "It's kind of like deciding whether it is better to finance a car or pay for it with cash."

He said he sought the 1-cent cut because county property valuations rose 12.5 percent on average this year, and he favored giving back some of the money generated by increased appraisals to taxpayers.

1. Concerns about how much interest on bonds will ultimately cost taxpayers have been cited as reasons to vote against the state and local propositions, by advocates in both parties. It's interesting that Paul Bettencourt, one of the most zealous tax-cut advocates around, is content to give the Harris County bonds a pass on that.

2. When was the last time you saw a tax cut being framed in terms of how much the lost revenue might cost taxpayers in other respects? Imagine that - tax cuts can have unintended consequences, too.

3. That $245 million for a new jail still chaps my hide. Its real costs will go well beyond just paying off the interest on the bond. I wish I had more hope that it would be defeated.

That's all I got.