$88M shortfall possible for Houston budget

Now let's talk about the Houston City Council. They decided to keep the property tax rate here the same in the city, but we got an $88 million budget shortfall. That is a big hole. You got to fill it somewhere. You got to fill it somehow. But then what does that also mean for city services? Karis Belger joining us now with that. Karis, I mean, $88 million, that's a lot of money. It is a lot of money. But when you look at the city and how they're used to operating, is it devastating? No, but still a big gap, something to consider. Now, city leaders say they can close that gap and also help find additional revenue if they continue to operate efficiently. I spoke with council member Frederick Fred Flickinger, and he told me that they don't believe that they'll have to cut any city services just yet. So council approved the same tax rate as last year, just under 52 cents per $100, depending on the value of your property. And Mayor John Whitmire says that 88 million is actually lower than what they predicted earlier would be the shortfall, but still higher than what they anticipated. The big deal here with this gap is about $60 million in property tax revenues that they're not accounting for anymore because property tax values have not gone up in the last year. So that's where they're trying to figure out that gap. Now, Flickinger says that puts more pressure on the city to control costs. He says there's been reduced overtime for police officers. The new cadet class has helped with that. They've also managed to help lower overtime for firefighters. But I also specifically asked, does the shortfall mean you'll have to cut city services? So here's what he had to tell me. Well, I think we always need to look at everything and make sure that a program that we had previously is still necessary and still needed. But anything that is necessary and needed, no, I don't see the city having to cut anything. All right, so that's good to hear. They don't believe, at least right now, they don't plan to cut anything. But you brought up the property tax rate. They said they're going to keep the property tax rate the same. But does that mean that homeowners will be paying the same, or does that impact that at all? It actually depends on the value of your home. Do you have certain exemptions, your homestead exemptions and things like that? That's going to determine whether or not your tax rate will go up for this year. Now, they are still going to figure out what it means for that gap, but there are concerns about the future of city services things like infrastructure how often do we report on concerns with the roads and things like that in order to take care of some of that city council mentioned they may have to raise taxes in the future but that's not happening right now all right Karis thank you so much we appreciate that