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Mayor Parker Unveils New Budget: Emphasizes No Tax Increases, No Layoffs, and Very Few Frills

Posted byHoumanitarian

(Chris Moran, Houston Chronicle)
Mayor Annise Parker has proposed a $2 billion general fund budget that includes plans to increase curbside recycling, restore night and weekend hours to the city’s 311 assistance line and open a sobering center as an alternative to jail for people whose only crime is being drunk.

What Parker emphasized in unveiling her spending plan for the year that starts July 1, however, is what is not in the budget. No tax increase. No new fee hikes. No layoffs. No furloughs. No service cuts. No borrowing to pay pension costs. No relying on real estate sales to balance the budget. Few new initiatives.

“This budget does not include a tax increase. It maintains my focus on five priorities: Jobs and sustainable development, infrastructure, public safety, quality of life and strong fiscal responsibility,” Parker said.

Total city spending for the coming year is projected at $4.5 billion. That includes enterprise funds – such as the airports, the water department and the new construction program to shore up the city’s drainage – that are funded by user fees instead of tax dollars.

Last year, the city issued 764 pink slips and cut services as budget officials grappled with a projected $100 million shortfall. Projected growth of city property and sales tax fuel an expected increase of $78 million in general fund income for the coming fiscal year.
(Read more at the Houston Chronicle)

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