Annise Parker on Budget & Economy

Close $205M budget gap by cuts & fee increases

When I arrived in the mayor's office, the city was facing a $205 million gap between anticipated spending and available revenues. The economy had pushed down our revenue pool while expenditures were rising due to contractual obligations for health insurance, pensions and employee pay agreed to prior to my arrival. Through a combination of operational consolidations, expenditure reductions, personnel cutbacks, sales of surplus land, cost of service increases and employee furloughs, we have been able to close that gap.