By N. Bradford
A public hearing and first reading of the City of Pearland’s budget is set for Monday, Sept. 11, at City Hall, 3519 Liberty Drive.
A second reading and public hearing on the city tax rate is set for Sept. 25. Both meetings begin at 6:30 p.m.
Proposed is a maximum total tax rate of 65.54 cents per $100 of property value, about 10 cents above the no-new-revenue rate.
The prior year’s tax rate — which city leaders have emphasized was artificially low due to a budgeting error — was 62 cents.
The City of Pearland found itself in the news last year when a valuation error created a $10 million budget shortfall.
“Imagine getting hit in the gut and what that does to you,” Mayor Kevin Cole said during an Aug. 23 question-and-answer forum. “We were able to withstand that. Could we do it again this year? Probably not — it would be tough.”
Through a series of budget amendments to help shore up the differences that include dipping into reserves, reallocating federal funds and deferred payments into its vehicle fund.
The motor pool fund, as it is known, is maintained to replace and repair the large fleet of city vehicles. The city makes regular payments into that fund during the year, which allows it to pay cash for vehicles rather than borrowing or leasing.
“Probably the biggest single line item (deferred) was the motor pool fund,” Cole said. “There was a lot of little things we did – we were so far moving forward with capital improvement projects that if we delayed something it didn’t have an impact on this budget.”
