Posted on 12/05/2008 12:13:40 PM PST by weegee
"Shop for cops" isn't yet a seasonal slogan, but it may as well be.
While the private sector has a lot riding on the holiday shopping season, so does the city of Houston. The nation's fourth-largest municipality depends on sales taxes for almost 30 percent of its operating budget. December is crucial to city coffers.
More gifts under the tree mean more money for police, sewer repairs and flood projects...
Sales tax revenue could be 3.4 percent lower than planned for this fiscal year, said Controller Annise Parker. That means a shortfall of $17.7 million from what was budgeted.
"I'd like to be proven wrong and see oil prices pop back up and the economy humming along, but we have to be prepared if it doesn't,"... "If we are correct in our estimates — and they are estimates — then the administration will have to make changes and cut costs somewhere."
Mayor Bill White's finance director, Michelle Mitchell, had a slightly more optimistic estimate, predicting a drop of less than 1 percent in projected sales tax revenues for Houston.
That translates into a budget shortfall of less than $5 million. The city expected to spend $2.1 billion in operating funds in fiscal year 2009, which began in July.
Mitchell and Parker, the city's two financial gurus, usually match each other in their fiscal estimates. But not this month. Mitchell predicted that post-Ike rebuilding and reconstruction would make up for most of the recession-caused shortfall in other consumer spending. Parker disagreed: "We don't see (Ike reconstruction) as an add-on to holiday shopping; we see that as instead of shopping."
Both emphasized the city still will bring in more sales tax revenue than last year, but it will not be as much as anticipated when the budget was finalized in late spring...
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Houston PING.
Not to worry! Mayor White’s $100 million dollar Katrina victim investment should be paying off any time now...
that controller is supposed to be running for mayor post-white
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.