![]() ![]() ![]() “But if sales tax drops dramatically enough and if property taxes drop dramatically, there may be no other choice.”īill Fulton, director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, which just published a report analyzing the fiscal scenarios for Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, said the lesson of previous recessions is that police and fire services “get cut back a little bit, but most everything else that the cities do is likely to get cut back a lot.”Ĭities and counties throughout the state will receive money through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, but many believe that it won’t be enough. 1 service that people expect from their city, and so that’s the last thing to go,” Sandlin said. Experts said that city leaders prefer to cut other areas like road maintenance, parks and libraries in order to protect fire, emergency service and police departments from layoffs. While some cities - including Austin and Dallas - are reconsidering their public safety funding amid recent protests against police brutality, this line item normally avoids major cuts during a crisis. It is redistributing funds and using CARES Act money to fill some of the holes left by the economic crisis. ![]() On Wednesday, the city approved a budget without major cuts. “It’s the toughest budget we’ve had to put together since I’ve been mayor in January of 2016,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in May. San Antonio’s current budget is predicted to drop by $200 million.Īnd in Houston, an original analysis projected a $169 million budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year because of COVID-19. Dallas’ analysts are predicting that the current year’s revenue will be at least $33 million below previous estimates the city has already furloughed library and parks department workers as a result. In the past month, Texas’ most populous cities have been tallying their losses. And then I think you’ll see a continued hit to the budget the following year, so it will be at least two to two and a half years.” “This is not going to go away very quickly,” Sandlin said. ![]()
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