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One of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s predecessors asserted that the City of Houston’s financial health doesn’t look good and the current administration bears responsibility if things worsen, per a report from Houston FOX affiliate KRIV.
Annise Parker occupied the Bayou City’s highest office from 2010 to 2016.
Parker told the station while Turner succeeded where she and Bill White, another former mayor, failed – the pension systems – she fears her successor didn’t do enough to balance the city’s books for the long term.
The ex-Houston City councilmember and city controller said that the mayor used finite federal COVID-19 assistance money to steady the budget.
"You have the administration which plugged budget holes for ongoing expenses with one-time money," Parker told KRIV.
Per the report, Parker warned whoever receives the baton from Turner in January 2024 will inherit a reserve likely incapable of addressing such pressing fiscal matters such as a half-decade of back firefighter pay and a legal battle over the city’s street and drainage fee.
According to Parker, the honeymoon enjoyed by the winner of the November 2023 mayoral race will be dashed by the reality city hall is teetering over what she calls a “financial cliff.”
“Anybody running for this job needs to understand there are going to be significant challenges,” Parker said in the report.
Parker’s first term as mayor began just as the city and the rest of the country attempted to recover from the Great Recession that took root in late 2008.
Parker told KRIV that when she first assumed the office, the economic downturn at the time forced her to lay off close to 700 municipal employees.
“I think that that is something that the next mayor is going to have to face,” she said.
At least half a dozen people are vying for the mayorship in the fall, with the contest likely to become one of the most expensive in the city’s recent history.