The Courier of Montgomery County reports that a $314.7 million budget is under consideration by the Conroe City Council for the upcoming fiscal year. It was hoped that this amount would yield a maintainable spending outcome.
The council reviewed possible budget cuts the city’s finance department proposed during a budget retreat on Friday.
Speaking in regard to where the city’s budget situation stands, City Administrator Gary Scott said Conroe “is not broke” but needs to cut spending to arrive at “future sustainability.”
He passed along that the new proposed budget figure does not allow for new personnel and, regarding current employees, does not offer any cost of living or market raises.
The current year’s budget is $306.2 million, and the proposed budget would be a 2.8 percent increase.
According to city information, the budget proposed to only fund $214.7 million of the city’s $575.2 million in capital project needs.
Assistant City Administrator and Director of Finance Collin Boothe said only around $12 million of the almost $23 million in requests will get funding out of Conroe’s proposed $123 million general fund.
Also, the city will have to reduce the size of its 90-day reserves by $1.4 million to pay for a shortfall in the general fund.
