In a contentious 8-hour meeting where protesters disrupted the June 4 City Council meeting, Houston City Council approved the proposed $7 billion budget for fiscal year 2025-26, a budget tied to reducing the city’s $330 million shortfall.

Breaking it down

The $7 billion budget is a $160 million increase compared to the FY 2024-25 budget. The city will have a general fund of $3.03 billion, a $74.5 million decrease from FY 2024-25.

Mayor John Whitmire said his budget is “balanced” and will reduce costs, as part of the city’s efforts to eliminate the projected $330 million budget shortfall. These efforts included:

• More than 3,070 city employees accepting the voluntary retirement program, saving the city $30 million
• Consolidating city departments and specific positions, all of which saved the city $7 million
• Making $16.1 million in funding reductions across 11 city departments

City departments such as Parks and Recreation saw the largest cuts with $4 million, while General Services and the Health Department also saw $3.25 million and $2.35 million in reductions, respectively. Kenneth Allen, the director of Houston Parks and Recreation, said during the department’s budget workshop May 16 that the budget reductions and retirements will lead to longer mowing cycles and reductions in security and patrols in parks.

The Department of Neighborhoods also saw nearly half of its budget slashed, going from $14 million to $7 million. Finance Director Melissa Dubowski said back in May that since code enforcement operations were removed from the Neighborhoods department to Houston Public Works, it saved the city $7 million, according to previous Community Impact reporting.

However, public safety departments such as police and fire saw no cuts, and will receive the largest portion of the general fund, $1.1 billion and $659 million, respectively. For these departments, that’s an increase of $67 million and $22.8 million, respectively. Earlier in May, Whitmire announced his contract between the city and the Houston Police Officers’ Union, which will raise salaries by 36.5% over five years.

More details

Prior to the vote, council members presented 71 amendments to the budget on things they want to see be done or added for the city.

City Council approved 14 amendments out of the 71 offered. Notable amendments that were approved included:

• Amendment 5.01 from council member Sallie Alcorn: Dedicate $10 million to establish an Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) trust. The OPEB provides funding for health benefits and life insurance for retired city employees
• Amendment 5.04 from council member Sallie Alcorn: Add $134,000 to BARC’s Special Revenue Funds to fund two additional animal enforcement officers
• Amendment 10.01 from council member Fred Flickinger: Increase allocated TIRZ Municipal Service Fees revenue to the Houston Parks and Recreation Department from $608,000 to $2.3 million, to maintain the current level of mowing services for esplanades and parks
• Amendment 12.03 from council member Mary Nan Huffman: 1% of the unassigned general fund, or $3.2 million, will be divided equally amongst each district to address local drainage concerns
• Amendment 13.01 from council member Mario Castillo: Allocate $350,000 to maintain professional kennel cleaning services at BARC. This allocation will allow staff to address behavioral issues, ensure pets spend more time outdoors and ultimately enhance their chances of finding permanent homes, according to the amendment.

On the other side

Throughout the meeting, Houston residents and members of numerous local advocacy groups such as West Street Recovery, Northeast Action Collective, Pure Justice and Texas Campaign for the Environment sat and watched as City Council members made their amendments, occasionally voicing their concerns aloud on the budget and Whitmire’s administration. Chants of “Whose money? Our money” and “Houston says no” echoed at City Hall.Before the meeting, a news conference was held by the groups, with many of them sharing their frustrations over the budget’s funding not being used for drainage and street projects, as well as the reduction of department spending that they worry will disrupt city services.

Salena Braye-Bulls, one of the speakers and a policy organizer at Pure Justice, a grassroots nonprofit in Houston working for criminal justice and reform, said she is against the city allocating $832 million towards HPD to provide raises, while “slashing funding" to other city departments and services.

“Just as Rosa Parks said ‘no’ to forfeiting her seat due to racism, we are saying ‘no’ to forfeiting our taxpayer dollars to more years of predatory criminalization because of this budget that deprives Houstonians of resources and ignores democratically approved processes,” she said.

By the 6-hour mark of the meeting, a few protesters jumped towards the front holding a banner that read: “Houston says no to Mayor Whitmire’s undemocratic budget.”

The meeting was briefly paused as many of the protesters began shouting and Houston police officers began removing and escorting them out of the room.Alice Liu, the co-director at West Street Recovery, was one of the protesters removed from the meeting and said the budget represents a “deep betrayal by Whitmire and city councilors” to their constituents.

“After saying for months that the city is broke, the mayor and council are deciding to give police an $832 million raise at the expense of parks, arts, libraries, neighborhoods, public works and voter-mandated drainage funds,” Liu said. “Today is not a fiscal choice, it’s a political and moral one.”

Doris Brown, an organizer with Northeast Action Collective, a community group organization for members in Northeast Houston, said the budget is a “grave danger” to Houston.

“It leaves us vulnerable to flooding that a decent investment could fix,” Brown said. “It leaves our parks, which provide the places of joy and community, recreation and exercise at risk of falling into disrepair, and it cuts the health department that so many of my neighbors rely on. The council has left us out to dry, but the police budget just goes up with no discussion.”

The Mayor’s Chief of Communications Mary Benton said no protesters were arrested after the meeting.

What they’re saying

City Council ultimately voted 14-3 on the budget, with Council members Edward Pollard, Abbie Kamin and Tiffany Thomas voting no.

Thomas said she isn’t supporting the budget because of the department cuts and workforce reductions made in the budget.

“When I would see every department talk about how many employees they lost, the financial decrease in that, and the demand for the services not minimizing, that’s what gives me pause in terms of how we move forward,” Thomas said.

Kamin said she voted no on the budget because of cuts to the health department, and the city's continuing efforts to remove street infrastructure already in place.

"Mayor, it's not personal," Kamin said during the meeting. "I respect you. There's a lot of hard work that has been put into this by city staff, and I hope that your administration will not seek retribution against the district and our residents."

Pollard said he opposed the budget because he is worried about the city spending more than it receives, and that the city needs a plan to address future, growing deficits.

“What is the plan for how we’re going to address this five-year forecast that shows, possibly in five years, that our budget deficit will be around $500 million?” Pollard said. “I don’t want to vote on a budget that satisfies today, but leaves us in peril tomorrow. Tomorrow is where I’m most concerned with.”

Whitmire said the budget is a “giant step,” and now the city needs to talk to its residents going forward about “what type of city they want to live in.”

“I’ve voted on many budgets in my career,” Whitmire said. “It’s always easy to find fault. There is no such thing as a perfect budget, and it’s so easy to be against something than for something, particularly when you don’t have to offer up any solution.”