Edinburg budget workshops raise questions

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EDINBURG — Officials here kicked off the fiscal budget planning season this week with a pair of workshops during which department heads presented their wish lists for additional personnel and equipment for the upcoming year.

But the discussions, which took place over about a combined six hours Monday and Tuesday, led to questions from the Edinburg City Council over borrowed money that has yet to be spent even as interest accrues on the debt.

The council also had questions regarding the layout of the nearly 400-page budget book itself, which included details regarding the personnel and capital outlay — or high-dollar — equipment and infrastructure requests.

What the workbook did not include, however, were overviews of what administrators think Edinburg’s projected revenues and expenditures will be in the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Such summaries typically list property and sales tax revenue projections for the general fund, which powers a city’s operations.

Those summaries also tend to show projections for a city’s unreserved fund balance — or rainy day fund — debt service encumbrances, as well as other revenues and expenditures generated by the various municipal services the city provides.

Instead, the budget book was largely organized by department.

Within each section lay a simplified breakdown of that department’s requests for additional personnel — if any — along with lengthy job descriptions, and a list of the department’s capital requests.

And therein began the council’s questions — particularly, for Mayor Ramiro Garza Jr.

FULL ACCOUNTING

During a discussion about street improvement projects, Garza asked City Engineer Mardoqueo Hinojosa whether funding for the projects was meant to come from the city’s general fund or from monies set aside as part of the capital improvement plan, or CIP.

Municipalities will often set aside a small portion of their annual revenues into a CIP fund. As the fund grows, it is used to pay for pricey equipment and long-term infrastructure projects, like new buildings or roads.

But the way the capital outlay requests were laid out in the budget book made the funding sources for the street projects unclear.

“Gentlemen, we’re just trying to follow this,” Garza said, referring to the budget book.

The mayor’s questions continued as he struggled to reconcile dollar figures that city staff were discussing with those listed in the budget book’s capital outlay summary.

“Whatever it is you all are presenting to us, that needs to be in the summary. ‘Cause right now, it shows $57.5 million of requests… but what you all are telling me is that this additional list is not included in here. Is that correct?” Garza asked.

The mayor was referring to a baker’s dozen worth of street improvement projects shown in the final two pages of the budget book as part of the city’s “long range plan.”

The 13 projects — which have a combined price tag of $277 million — are expected to be completed in five phases over the course of several years.

The cost for just the first phase is expected to be just over $18 million, the budget book shows.

And it was that figure Hinojosa was referring to while addressing the council.

He was feeling out the council’s willingness to allocate funding for the first phase of the street improvements “just to get them started,” the city engineer explained.

In the capital outlay summary before the council, however, it appeared that staff was requesting only $3.5 million in funding for streets.

“We need to have one list to make it easier. If we’re having a hard time, the public’s gonna have a hard time,” Garza said.

“We need to, ourselves, have a better handle on what is being requested, have it on one list and have it real clear,” he said.

DEBT STAGNATING

The mayor continued to hone in on questions over infrastructure funding during a discussion of the solid waste department’s needs, including a request to issue $9 million in debt to buy land for the city landfill.

The request comes on top of $9.5 million in debt that a very different-looking city council approved in 2021.

Ramiro L. Gomez, Edinburg’s director of solid waste management, explained that rising material costs and lag time as the city awaits approval from state regulators has contributed to the higher project costs.

But the mayor wondered why the city had taken on debt for projects that hadn’t been ready to go at the time.

“I’m just trying to understand, myself, because we’re already paying interest on this, is that correct?” Garza asked.

Gomez replied, yes, that Edinburg has already made at least three payments on the debt — before a single shovel has gone into the ground.

“Back at that time, it was a management decision to go ahead and move on that bond at that point,” Gomez said.

“We weren’t ready,” he said a moment later.

It’s not the first time the council has learned that the city has been encumbered by debt meant to pay for projects that were not researched beforehand.

Last month, the council learned that a proposed three-story parking garage will not be enough to meet downtown parking needs over the next decade.

Nonetheless, in 2021, the city borrowed $10 million to pay for the garage.

BREAKING IT DOWN