DALLAS — The City of Houston was facing an impossible choice: leave the storm debris from Beryl and an earlier derecho littering the area, or temporarily raise taxes to pay for the cleanup.
In the end, the state stepped in with a lifeline, giving Southeast Texas $50 Million for debris cleanup, with Houston receiving around $32 Million.
That still leaves the city with an $8 Million gap, but leaders say they can come up with those dollars by addressing inefficiencies in the budget.
“There will be no tax raise now to handle the derecho and Beryl costs,” At-Large Council Member Sallie Alcorn told us on Inside Texas Politics. “I don’t necessarily think it’s waste and fraud of $8 Million. I think it’s going to be things like vacancies that haven’t been filled, eliminating vacancies.”
Alcorn is the chair of the city’s Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee, so she knows where the dollars are.
She says the mayor has promised that no essential services will need to be cut.
While this solves some issues caused by previous storms, there’s still more than a month left in hurricane season, which runs through the end of November, so city leaders remain on edge.
“Every time we hear about these storms, we panic. We keep about $25 Million in a rainy-day fund that’s never even close to what we need. So, it’s something to be very concerned about,” Alcorn said.