In his first State of the City address since taking office, Houston Mayor John didn’t spend much time highlighting his economic plans amid a looming budget shortfall and increased expenses stemming from the firefighters’ settlement and recent natural disasters.
Instead, a good chunk of Tuesday’s conversation between moderator William F. McKeon, President and CEO of the Texas Medical Center, and Whitmire was mired in nostalgia about the mayor’s upbringing in Hillsboro and young adulthood in Houston.
Rice University political science professor Bob Stein expected Whitmire to lay out more details of his financial blueprint for the upcoming budget cycle. Stein said he was looking for the mayor to discuss where the funds to cover incurred costs would come from.
Whitmire had previously floated the idea of a one-time tax increase to pay for a portion of the $1.5 billion firefighters’ settlement and help balance Houston’s budget. However, the mayor appeared to backtrack on Tuesday, saying that addressing inefficiencies and fraudulent practices would come first.