By N. Bradford
Reporter News Staff
The City of Pearland will hold public discussions of the upcoming fiscal year budget on Aug. 12 and Aug. 21.
The first discussion is 8 to noon at City Hall, 3519 Liberty Drive, and the Sept. 25 session is 6:30 p.m. at the same location.
Coming into play this year are recommendations of an outside firm hired to look into a valuation error made during last year’s budget process that resulted in a more than $10 million budget shortfall. The city has shored up that deficit through a series of cuts, dipping into savings and reallocating federal funds.
Mayor Kevin Cole asked city staff for an update at the first budget meeting Aug. 12 regarding where the city is on implementation of those recommendations.
How the City of Pearland will prevent such an error in the future is a question Cole has been asked quite often, he said.
“We’re going through this process No. 1 to have fresh eyes on what happened, and No. 2 so we get good feedback on best practices moving forward so it doesn’t reoccur,” he said.
A public hearing and first reading of fiscal year 2024 budget is set for Sept. 11, with a second reading and tax rate public hearing scheduled Sept. 25.
