Big Apple's got nothing on Space City's budget drama. Houston Mayor John Whitmire is tightening the city's belt, mandating all departments except police and fire to propose 5% budget cuts facing a $160 million budget shortfall and a pricey settlement with firefighters. Finance Director Melissa Dubowski's dishing out the bad news that belt-tightening's the flavor of the day, and the cop shop and the fire station are the only ones exempt from this financial diet, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Whitmire's no fan of blanket cuts, telling the Houston Chronicle, "I don't like across the board cuts. I think it rewards inefficient operations, departments that kind of ratholed some money or didn't need all they asked for in the first place, and it punishes those responsible departments," but insists it's time to start a conversation on city spending that can't be ignored. In the mix, is a tentative agreement with the firefighters union on back pay, a tab that could run between $500 million and $600 million, according to estimates by the Greater Houston Partnership cited by the Houston Chronicle.
City officials aren't just trimming the fat, they're calling out what they say are inaccuracies in a report by the Greater Houston Partnership. Finance Director Will Jones went on record at a City Council meeting, dispelling "factual errors" in the report, poking holes at the study's conclusions. According to Community Impact, Jones objected to how the study presented the city's financial situation by conflating the unrestricted net position deficit with the total net position surplus, which, he argued, misleads the reader.
Looks like this financial tangle isn't new, with the city previously relying on one-time funds to bridge budget gaps. The GHP report had called out the city's "chronic structural budget deficit," suggesting the budget band-aids weren't going to cut it long-term. Houston's Controller Chris Brown wasn't mincing words at the council meeting, emphasizing, "We must reduce recurring expenditures or increase recurring revenue," while Vice Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin alluded to a less than 1% tweak in expected sales tax revenue, not the 11% plunge projected earlier, as reported by the Community Impact.
Despite the kerfuffle over the report's accuracy, the dire financial straits and call for cuts stand. Houston's financial chiefs are weighing options to prevent City Hall from turning into a penny-pinching free-for-all. Reducing duplicate services, axing vacant positions, fee finagling, and convincing Houstonians to lift a property revenue cap for public safety are on the table, per the Houston Chronicle. And lest anyone forget, Council Member Sallie Alcorn is hoping to reignite a shelved service-sharing initiative to potentially save north of $10 million.
