With a bit of drama along the way.
Mayor Sylvester Turner
City Council voted to boost funding for a controversial program that helps district council members tackle neighborhood projects Wednesday, even as it approved an annual budget from which one police cadet class and up to 75 employees’ jobs already had been trimmed.
Mayor Sylvester Turner blasted the 10-7 vote to amend his budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 as “irresponsible.” He warned that increasing the 11 district council members’ project funds could imperil the city’s ability in the coming months to find the money to restore a fifth police cadet class, offer a sufficient raise to firefighters or address long-term challenges such as an aging vehicle fleet or accumulated building maintenance.
“They passed that amendment without specifying where the money is coming from, and that’s almost like pulling it out of thin air,” Turner said after the meeting. “Quite frankly that’s not the way I choose to budget.”
Though the day was tense at times, Turner praised the ultimately unanimous vote to pass his $5.2 billion budget, $2.4 billion of which comes from the general fund that is supported mainly by residents’ taxes and funds most basic services like police, fire, trash pickup, parks and libraries.
The general fund budget aims to spend about $35 million more than the current one, due partly to a $51 million rise in debt costs. For the first time in about 15 years, the budget fully funds the city’s pension costs, thanks to the reform bill Turner successfully pushed through Austin and that Gov. Greg Abbott signed Wednesday while the council was in session.
The budget also closed a $123 million deficit with departmental cuts (largely to police and fire overtime) one-time fixes (such as selling city land), deferred payments (such as to the Houston Zoo) and a dip into city reserves.
Though staffers for Turner and for some council members were abuzz late Wednesday with speculation that a long honeymoon period may finally have ended, the mayor seemed to head off such thinking after the meeting.
“Like any marriage, sometimes there’s disagreement,” he said, wearing a modest grin. “I’m going to get some roses and I’ll send it to all 16 of them. We’ve done a lot of great things together.”
See here for the background. Those Council district funds were first added into the budget under Mayor Parker, and it would seem they are here to stay. They don’t change the size of the budget, just how the money is allocated. I get why Mayor Turner is annoyed, but it’s not that big a deal. I seriously doubt this will change how he and Council deal with each other.