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.