Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner's $6.2 billion budget includes pay hikes for all city employees

HOUSTON - Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is proposing a $6.2 billion City budget - a plan which sets aside $400 million in reserve and increases year-over-year spending by better than 6.5%. 

"This represents the strongest fund balance in recent history for a recent budget," said Turner.

SUGGESTED: Preschooler shoots 1-year-old sibling in Harris County, authorities investigating

Turner's final budget includes a pay hike of 3% for all municipal workers and police while also lifting firefighter wages 6%.

"Not one time since I have been Mayor have we been forced to lay-off one single employee in the city of Houston," said Turner.

DOWNLOAD THE FOX 26 HOUSTON APP BY CLICKING HERE

Included in next year's projected spending are $160 million of the approximately $1 billion pandemic aid dollars received by the City.

The Mayor readily concedes that the federal funding kept municipal government afloat.

"It bought us time, and it bought us time for the economy to recover. So in the absence of it, not just the City of Houston, but cities across the country would have gone under," said Turner.

With a little more than six months left in office, Turner touted a 73% reduction in the City's unfunded pension liability, but made no mention of the recent major water rate hike or the six-year labor impasse with Houston Firefighters - the substantial cost of which will likely be left for his successor to solve.

Despite the rosy post-pandemic financial report, Turner urged Houstonians to lift the voter-imposed cap limiting how much the city can raise their taxes.