Despite efforts to address budget issues and cut spending, Houston City Comptroller Chris Hollins is once again warning about major overages. He recently told the City Council that the city is on track to overspend by about $55 million on overtime, primarily for police officers and solid waste workers.
While that is a slight improvement from last year—when the city went $70 million over budget—it’s a painful reminder of the budget issues that have plagued the city since the tenure of former Mayor Sylvester Turner.
Charles Blain, with Urban Reform, says those years of back-to-back poor planning are going to make addressing the issue difficult. “With the city under-budgeting for so long—almost every year for 11 years—you end up in this situation where you almost can’t get out of it,” he explained.
While many might look for one quick fix to solve the issue, Blain says the situation is a lot more complicated than that. “It has to really be looked at department to department,” he said. “Everyone’s got their own contracts, and for one individual, overtime might be time and a half, and for another individual it might not be.”
Blain also explained that the root of the overtime issue varies from department to department. In one department, it might be related to staff shortages; in another, it could be related to abuses of the overtime system.
He says that at the end of the day, it’s going to require elected officials who are more concerned about the stability of the city in 50–60 years than they are about their own terms in office to solve the issue.