HOUSTON -- As Annise Parker prepares to take office as Houston's next mayor, here are the top three challenges she plans to (or has to) tackle.
1. The Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Budget
Mayor Bill White is fond of pointing out that Houston is in much better financial shape than most other large U.S. cities: Our unemployment rate is lower than most metro areas, and the city spent years building up savings accounts so monthly operations could continue without deep cuts or going into debt. That's the good part. The bad part is that the city relies heavily on the sales tax and property taxes -- and both have plunged. While sales tax revenues may remain flat or rebound slightly next year, property tax collections are likely to fall. This is because property values in Harris County are expected to drop somewhat when HCAD sets the 2010 values after January 1.
White has been warning that tough budget times lie ahead for more than a year. "Whenever anyone would ask my advice to the next mayor, it would be, 'don't promise too much, because we're going to have to cut before we add,'" he said Wednesday. "In fact, I'm going to go back one more time before I get out of here and scrub the budget one last time, to see if there are additional cuts that should be made."
The City Council will not have to set the next budget until the summer, so Parker will have a few months to come up with plans for saving money. One of the largest immediate problems is the solvency of Houston's Combined Utilities System, which operates the water/sewer system. It is sagging under the weight of long-term debt, and millions of dollars in payments are due this spring. In addition, White has said the system does not collect nearly enough in monthly water bills to justify its operating budget -- so an expensive audit is underway. The audit is expected to recommend investments in new technology to save money in the long run, meaning large one-time expenses could show up in the short-term.
Anne Clutterbuck, who chairs the City Council's fiscal affairs committee, said problems with the Combined Utility System and the city's mounting pension debt are what "keep me up at night."
"Those are issues that will outlast this Council," she said, pointing out the urgency of stabilizing looming long-term debt obligations within the next two years.
2. Adding police, without adding police
Parker campaigned on a promise of increasing the effectiveness of the Houston Police Department without a heavy investment in additional academy classes, which would mean more officers -- but many more expensive salaries.
Instead, Parker wants to increase cooperation between the several public safety agencies that operate within Houston's city limits: Constables, the Harris County Sheriff, METRO Police and even the HISD Police. She said that by negotiating agreements and standardizing some response procedures, an officer or deputy could respond to an emergency call much more quickly.
"When you call 911, you want someone with a badge and a gun. You don't care what agency they're from or what patch they wear on their sleeve," Parker said during the campaign.
Outgoing HPD Chief Harold Hurtt was critical of the concept during a news conference Thursday. "Who is going to pay the overtime?" he asked. "So, let's say the city pays the overtime. Where do the fines they issue go? Do we split them with that jurisdiction?"
Hurtt also pointed out that other public safety agencies are already busy responding to their own emergency calls, and would be spread thin if they were to respond to calls that would ordinarily be routed to Houston Police.
3. A METRO makeover
"Are you willing to do what needs to be done to go in and clean house at METRO?" candidate Parker asked, her question planted firmly at her opponent's feet. Parker criticized Gene Locke repeatedly for his prior role as a legal advisor to the transit agency, and now Parker says she will make good on promises to make METRO "more transparent."
We still don't know exactly what that means, but already, METRO's chairman has announced his intent to resign. Parker has hinted that she may replace other members of METRO's board of directors, but she said her real goal is more transformative: Continue the agency's efforts to aggressively expand light rail in Houston, but also improve its focus on its bread-and-butter bus lines, which Parker says have slipped.
She also wants METRO to "reconsider" its earlier decision to raise fares across the board.
