Published: October 22, 2009 10:44 am      

Home incentives get OK

On split vote, council expands plan designed to attract more professionals

Have a job at the new Seton Hospital in Kyle and want to buy a home in San Marcos?

If you’re pulling down $45,000 a year or more, you could soon be eligible for a $5,000 down payment incentive from the city.

If you make less, well, you’re welcome but on your own.

That’s the gist of a council vote Tuesday.

By a vote of 5-2, the council approved an extension of a program already established with Texas State University and Central Texas Medical Center that would provide $50,000 for “up to 10 forgivable down payment assistance loans” of $5,000 each.”

Mayor Susan Narvaiz and council members Kim Porterfield, Fred Terry, Chris Jones and Pam Couch voted in favor of the agreement; John Thomaides and Gaylord Bose opposed it.

“I objected last time and I still feel the same way,” said Bose, who had also opposed the program when it was initially offered to professors at Texas State. “We’re excluding a group of people. If we’re going to give it to people, give it to everybody.”

The loans could only be used to purchase a home that would be the employee’s principal residence. Twenty percent would be forgiven each year that the homeowner continues to work at Seton and live in the home. After meeting those conditions for five years, the complete loan would be forgiven.

City manager Rick Menchaca said from research the city has conducted so far, “at the end of the day we have about a one and a half year payback period,” from what the family pays in property and sales taxes.

He said through the city’s experience providing the incentives to Texas State professors, “we’ve been tracking how many children, how big is the household, the value of the home they purchased.” Menchaca said on average, the homes those professors bought were about 50 percent higher than most in the city.

City Attorney Michael Cosentino, on Narvaiz’ suggestion, said the city already has programs to help provide home down payments to the economically disadvantaged, including some Community Development Block Grant money and other assistance through the Neighborhood Stabilization program.

“We also set aside over $400,000 a year in social service money and $30,000 a year in assistance for utilities,” Narvaiz said. “I believe we’re doing a really good job of assisting anywhere we can.”

“That’s not the point I’m trying to get across,” Bose countered. “We’re picking certain groups of people and we’re not including everybody.” He noted that while the city’s ongoing assistance programs are targeted towards “people on the lower end,” college professors and many in the medial field are “high income people.”

“I know this is OK and we’ve got the rights to do it,” he continued. “I don’t feel comfortable saying ‘You’re special, and you’re special. The rest of you can come on in but you’re not that special.”

Because the measure was a resolution, only one council vote was required. The approval authorizes Menchaca to execute the agreement.