While Houston could pass a 'balanced budget,' numbers show how high future deficits could climb

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The fight over how to spend billions of Houston's taxpayer dollars is just heating up.

On Tuesday, Mayor John Whitmire unveiled a plan on how he'd like to do it. His $7 billion budget proposal doesn't increase taxes or fees.

However, it does change city government. To save money, there will be consolidations, reorganization, and hundreds of fewer workers.

On Wednesday, city council got its first chance to ask questions about the budget. Some of them raised concerned with the department changes.

"Our office is already receiving inquires about prohibited yard parking, and who does it? Is it 311? Is it HPD? There is confusion amongst the ranks about where that lives," Council Member Tiffany Thomas said.

To balance the budget, Whitmire wants to change how city government workers use reserve funds and offered a retirement deal to city workers.

More than a thousand took it. On Wednesday, we got our first look in how departments are impacted.

More than 1,000 retired early. Nearly 250 public works employees took the deal.

107 police took it as well, and 72 airport system employees accepted it too. The city's finance director said 882 of the positions won't be refilled.

It's not just retiring employees balancing the budget, departments could get less money too.

The budget proposal shows the neighborhoods department was slashed in half from the general fund going from $14 million to $7 million. The libraries department would drop from $54 million to $50 million.

The parks and recreation department would go from $92 million to $88 million. The health department could see a decline as well going from $57 million to $50 million.

It could've been worse. Departments were asked to cut ten percent.

"I can tell you that what was accepted and what's included in this budget does not get up to that 10% and it varies by department," finance director Melissa Dubowski explained.

During the budget meeting, the talk wasn't only about the mayor's proposal. New numbers from the finance director show the city could faces major deficits in the years to come.

The most optimistic outlook shows the city would face a $329 million dollar deficit by 2030. The worst case outlook showed it could be as high as $536 million.

To reduce it, Whitmire told ABC13 everything's on the table for future budgets. However, some on council don't think they should wait.

"Was there nothing proposed or thought of, what could be done to ensure that in the out years we're budgeting so that we're not faced with a multi-million hundred dollar deficit," Council Member Ed Pollard said.

The city's chief financial officer said he wasn't a part of the budget process. Controller Chris Hollins hasn't weighed in yet.

That's going to change soon. He's hosting a meeting on Wednesday night, where he plans to give his thoughts to ABC13.

For updates on this story, follow Nick Natario on Facebook, X and Instagram.