CITY OF BRENHAM HOLDS ANOTHER BUDGET WORKSHOP
The City of Brenham will again be recalculating the 2022 budget after this (Thursday) morning’s workshop meeting. The city’s Chief Financial Officer, Carolyn Miller, presented the council with the option of eliminating the proposed increase in gas and electric rates. Water rates will still need to increase due to the debt incurred by the Lake Somerville Intake Structure. The loss in revenue would eliminate 8 new positions the city had planned to hire in 2022, and also eliminate the cost of living increase paid to city workers. City Manager James Fisher defended the new positions by saying as the city grows, these positions are needed 'not because we want them, but because we need them'. Miller offered that the city could go down by 1 cent in taxes instead of the proposed 2 cents, and that would raise $140,000. Council member Adonna Saunders proposed hiring only 4 new positions and going up on utility rates only ½ of the proposed increases. She added that the cost of living increase in salaries is really needed right now by city employees as the cost of everything is going up. Miller plans to bring the tax rate to council next week at a 1 cents drop, and recalculate the budget with the cost of living increase, hiring 2 to 4 new employees, and going up on the electric and gas rates only ½ of the original proposed amount.
City Manager James Fisher was asked if the $4 million that city has been promised by the Federal Government in COVID relief funds would cover any of the budget shortfalls. He said there are so many restrictions on what the funds can be used for, that he is hesitant to say yes or no. He promised that as soon as they figure what the funds can be used for, he will let us know.
So let me get this straight…… 8 new positions are needed???? So I guess some buddies got laid off and need jobs. I thought Fischer said last year the City was in such great shape financially. Sad when you can’t give the men and women in the city a raise that earn it but can give a city manager a raise that has blown and wasted more money that any other city manager we had in the past. I guess with all the lawsuits we are in and don’t win them they guess we are going broke.
I would suggest the best 2022 budget option. This would surely create the greatest revenues for the city. I suggest that all of these grossly overpaid city employees at this budget workshop take a mandatory ten percent salary decrease and also forfeit their unnecessary daily work commute lucrative vehicle allowances.
There we go! Problem solved!…We had high hopes for the vision of our new members be really they are “NO HOPE.”