City Of Houston Essay

Conclusion

The city of Houston is facing an extreme budget crisis and a shortfall in revenue. The shortfall in revenue forced the city to make difficult decisions that resulted in furloughing employees to release funds. Those accessible funds will provide the city with leeway to implement and modify city needs. The city's mission to restore the city after the pandemic did not allow much room for hiring and increasing wages for employees because it was not a priority. The lack of hiring and increasing wages caused employees to turn to other avenues to demand their needs pertaining to their employment duties and responsibilities. The city’s focus was to reduce the budget within other departments to release funds that will be added to the public

The crime rate in Houston and the population growth have caused people to question the ability of law enforcement. The public safety category did not face any department cuts because public safety is an essential part of any city. The number of officers did not decrease drastically. However, the rise in the crime rate and population caused individuals to doubt. The first question that the people have are whether the city has enough officers to regulate a city the size of Houston. The second question is how the city deal with crime. Lastly, will the budget allocation allow the city to fully reduce the current crime rate?

The crime rate in Houston is no different than the crime rate in places such as Chicago, or Buffalo, NY. The crime occurring before the pandemic is no different than the crime occurring after the pandemic. Therefore, what makes the crime occurring now different? The crime occurring in Houston is the topic of discussion because as the population increases it’s assumed that crime will increase as well. The city already had prior concerns with the ratio of officers versus residents before the pandemic. However, the increase in population and the scarce city budget made the circumstance

So, what can the city do to improve this? There are a few recommendations that the city can implement. The first recommendation is utilizing its general fund to pay for more cadet class programs to entice residents to apply which will directly deal with the number of current law enforcement. The second recommendation is to set up accessible funds based on priority needs first. If those general funds are specifically distributed, it may lessen the worry of the current issue. The third recommendation is to end those programs that were put in place during the pandemic and remained after to reduce the burden on residents. Furthermore, raising taxes will not help the circumstances within the city because residents will be in an uproar. The most important recommendation is to plan and budget in the case of another pandemic or natural disaster because the impact of the pandemic made the city's resources scarcer. The city's one major responsibility is to maintain the services and programs but plans to keep them afloat at a lower price each budget