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The City Controller is once again sounding the alarm about the ongoing budget crisis here in the City of Houston. So how much does that actually affect you? Unlike federal budget issues, this problem could affect your daily life in some pretty big ways.
Charles Blaine with Urban Reform pointed out that while federal and even state budget issues often don't impact your day to day, the City being unable to pay its bills has much more tangible results. He said, "That means trash pickup is delayed, if it happens at all. That means we can't hire more police and firefighters. That means we can't pave the roads at the rate they need to be paved."
So why exactly is the City of Houston so strapped for cash? Turns out, there's really not any one reason, and there isn't one person to blame. Blaine says that rather, this is the result of years of mismanagement.
He said, "This has been administration after administration, that has overspent and underdelivered, truly. They've passed budgets that were never structurally balanced."
The icing on the cake here is a recent ruling from the Texas Supreme Court in a case involving Houston's Street and Drainage Fees, that resulted in a nearly $330 million budget deficit. Blaine said that's something we should have been prepared for.
He said that, "This lawsuit had been pending, and even last year, during the budget cycle, council members asked the budget director, 'Are you guys setting aside money for this potential $100 million settlement?' And they said, 'No.'"
Blaine warned that now this political hot potato has been passed down to Mayor John Whitmire, and could be used against him by his enemies, despite the fact that he isn't truly to blame for most of these issues.
