Mayor Turner gives a brief preview of what is to come.
Mayor Sylvester Turner
Mayor Sylvester Turner said Friday that he expects to lay off 40 city employees and eliminate 54 vacant positions as he seeks to close a budget shortfall of as much as $160 million, his first public estimate of the personnel reductions required to balance Houston’s books.
Turner did not specify which departments would bear the brunt of the cuts, but said he would not lay off police officers or civilians working in the Houston Police Department. He added that he would be resistant to trimming the parks or library departments.
The mayor emphasized that if City Council members alter his proposed budget, more layoffs are likely.
“Until this budget is voted on and approved by the members of City Council, it is very, very preliminary,” Turner said. “If there are any changes that reduce the shared sacrifice that is embedded within my budget that I will propose, the layoffs will exponentially increase.”
Turner said he intends to submit an executive summary of the budget to council members no later than April 15, with the goal of approving the budget in early May. The city must finalize its budget by July.
Houston’s financial shortfall had been projected to be $126 million, but Turner has revised that figure to as much as $160 million.
I’m very curious to see what the executive summary will look like. As the story notes, Mayor Parker wound up cutting a lot more jobs back in 2010. I’m not sure what Mayor Turner has in mind that will allow fewer jobs to be lost – maybe more of them are higher-paying jobs, who knows – but I can’t wait to see. Perhaps the “shared sacrifice” aspect of this includes some use of TIRZ funds, or concessions on how much the city pays into pension funds. Any guesses out there?
Charles, the Mayor could eliminate the highest paying 94 positions in the city and it wouldn’t amount to much of a savings, just as Parker’s cuts were closer to 800 because they were generally among the lowest paying spots (as her department heads were given record raises). As he is going to unveil his proposed budget well ahead of previously established schedules, I suspect he is prepared for a lot of hand wringing from all the usual councilmen, HOPE, etc., about specific cuts but I do think he has obtained various concessions for the short term to make such an announcement.