As the city of Sugar Land’s budget planning process wraps up, city officials have said the recent oil and gas industry downturn has affected several of its pieces. The Sugar Land City Council held its last budget workshop meeting Sept. 1. The $260.4 million proposed budget for fiscal year 2016-17 is expected to be approved Sept. 20 with the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Sugar Land Financial Director Jennifer Brown said the three main areas affected by the downturn are employee salaries, tourism revenue and sales tax revenue. Regarding salaries, the city has been cautious to shift raises. It is proposing a 3 percent merit raise for employees based on market research, opting not to change its salary structure overall. The raises are based on the economic forecast facing the city in the next 12 to 18 months, said Paula Kutchka, Sugar Land human resources director. “We do a comprehensive survey of the Houston metropolitan area and what we are seeing is most cities are recommending an adjustment of somewhere between 2.5 to 4.5 [percent],” Kutchka said. “It’s consistent with the market.” Tourism revenue came in under budget projections. Brown said the oil and gas industry brings people to the city’s hotels for meetings, and with the downturn there have been fewer people staying in Sugar Land. “They’re not using the hotel rooms like they were,” she said. Tourism revenue for fiscal year 2015-16 is expected to come in at $2.36 million, which is under budget by about $270,000. Despite the downturn, the city is projecting revenue to be $2.49 million in FY 2016-17, or 5.2 percent more than FY 2015-16. In the FY 2016-17 budget, the city projects to generate $38.24 million in sales tax revenue, according to meeting documents. Despite a decrease of 2.3 percent in sales tax revenue in FY 2015-16, Brown said the city also anticipates a 3 percent increase in sales tax per year from FY 2017-18 through FY 2020-21. She said the activities of the oil and gas industry’s local companies mostly affect the city’s sales tax revenue. In FY 2015-16’s case, the downturn affected Sugar Land’s sales tax negatively. “The main impact we really see on the sales tax side would be like a Schlumberger, and it’s impacted by the oil and gas industry,” she said. “It’s providing equipment to the fields out in the Gulf and so we do get sales tax from that.”