Posted on 03/27/2024 2:05:50 PM PDT by george76
Mayor John Whitmire proposing a 5% cut across the board, except for fire and police departments..
Tax hikes and increased fees for parking and city services are likely ..
The Mayor of Houston says the city is 'broke' after overspending for decades.
Experts say the problem has existed for years, but COVID handouts from the federal government helped mask them.
...
A tax hike through a bond is expected in November.
...
The city has been struggling to make firefighters whole, from meeting its contractual obligation to their pension, to paying backpay and wage hikes that have been promised years ago.
Whitmire's plan to settle with the first responders will cost taxpayers $650 million for over the next five years.
'I don't like a five percent cut now, but you have to make tough decisions, and folks put me in this position to make tough decisions, and I'm going to do my job,' Whitmire stated.
The city also gave away some of its revenue to the public transit system in the 70s.
'They spent $3 billion on light rail system that is performing horribly,' Democrat John Whitmire, who was elected in December, gave the bleak warning at a City Hill meeting this week where he proposed a five percent cut across all city spending to alleviate the cash-flow problem.
'I think we can all agree that we're broke,' Whitmire said, before proposing the planned cuts.
'This gives us a chance to discuss the financial picture of this City. It is broken! It was broken when I got here, ' he said.
America's fourth largest city is spending more money than it's taking in, leaving it with a $160 million deficit,
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
What do they expect from democrat run cities?
Look in his freezer.
I was talking to someone last week who bartends at the Arena Theater. I said I'd been to that place a couple of times and it's a great venue (I saw Manhattan Transfer in 1983-ish). I said it's across from the Sharpstown Mall, and he said yes.
I decided to google the Sharpstown Mall and found that it's now a Tejano mall called PlazAmericas that is Hispanic themed. The Arena is now almost exclusively a Tejano venue, which is a shame because it's a marvelous theater-in-the-round, the only one I know of in Houston. But it serves the area, I suppose.
That was my stomping ground back then. Hwy 6 to the west (West Oaks Mall), Bissonnet to the south (Westwood Mall), Post Oak to the east (Galleria Mall), and I-10 to the north (Memorial City Mall).
Alief... I wouldn't go back there in the daytime. I live near The Woodlands now.
-PJ
It's NEVER managers, associate analysts, accountants, office technicians, or any other wouldn't be missed government workers.
It's ALWAYS cops, firemen, and teachers. Cops, firemen, and teachers.
-PJ
Post 36 was about Houston, not all of Texas.
If they said city administrators would be cut, no one would vote for their bonds or tax increases.
Nice site hope they keep it up to date
Hate it when I refer someone to a site and it’s stagnant
I’m surprised, too, given some of the things I’ve been told by neighbors who have relatives living in that city. A couple of years ago, one of them told me a sibling said there had been a proposal to throw many millions away on a project downtown-a SanFran-type trolley for tourists to ride-but the trolley supposedly only went a few blocks, so somehow cooler heads prevailed in the council and the trolley did not happen-at least not then. I honestly could not believe such a ridiculous use of taxpayer money by a city-do you know if it is true?
Nothing about Houston surprises me-I had some cousins who had really good jobs and lived there, but they are all making less money and living around here and in W Texas now-where people are at least semi-sane. I always hated to go to visit them in Houston, even when it was for something like all of us going to a Stones concert-haven’t been there in 17 years, and I never intend to go back...
Pffft. Only 160 mil in the hole? They got nutt’n on Chicago Mayor Brandon “conehead” Johnson’s somewhat larger 538 million shortage in the 2024 budget.
It is impossible for me to run out of reasons to denigrate houston. There is just so much about the whole region that sucks. The Allen brothers sold one of the biggest frauds in the history of the country. Build a city in a swamp? Just why? With ground water withdrawal the flooding will continue to get worse by the year. There is no remedy for it. I moved to the far NW side and the city followed me. Hardly anywhere to go but NW or far north even beyond Conroe. There is a mild escarpment on highway 290 just NW of Cypress. That marks the edge of the Galveston Basin. Inside that you flood. Gain 90 feet or so and you don't.
I can't feature what downtown became like after covid. One of my former clients office complex downtown became as little as 5% occupied and I don't think it has gotten much better with loaf from home still in effect. I used to work weekend duty downtown and you could shoot a cannon down the streets without fear of hitting a thing. It was almost spooky.
I had a townhouse uptown for a bit where I would live during the week. The 50 mile commute that included nearly an hour to the bus stop and then another hour or sometimes 2 and as much as 4 hours was killing me. That is each way folks for an average of about 3.5 or more hours on a good day each day. I tried walking to work from the townhouse, just six blocks or so from just south of 610 on the south side. Gave that up quickly. Just too dangerous any time of day. I'm sure it is worse now.
No matter who runs it, houston SUCKS. Anybody that says differently is either daft or just trying to put a smile on a bad situation and cope. Good for them. I stayed until I could leave. One bucket for money and one bucket for crap. When one bucket gets full, you go home. I did.
Just cut the Salary of every city employee by 25% and make them get their own healthcare through Obamacare. Problem Solved.
I guess you don’t like the beaches and bays.
It’s true. It seems like more often than not in the fiscal matters. Cooler heads tend to prevail. In social matters, the leadership is significantly lefty.
“DEI at work for you.”
Sound like they FINALLY have a White guy there to clean up the mess...
Is he related to the Mayor Whitmire who looked liked Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie?” Too lazy to google.
Yep!
Migration from New Orleans certainly had its devastating consequences...
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