The Council addresses the Operations and Maintenance Budget, and sets the tax rate, in September. Last year was a tough year as the staff and Council struggled with a $5 million deficit. We streamlined city government in a number of areas and cut programs. The Star Spangled Fourth that has been celebrated at Firewheel Town Center was one such program, which recently made the news.
 
I said last year that setting that budget wasn't hard. I didn't mean to imply that it was easy, far from it, but I wanted to convey that this year would be even more difficult. For every excuse we found last year to not make the hard decisions, we would be visited double this year. I think the Council did make the hard decisions and, more importantly, we told the staff that it was okay to be aggressive, that there were no sacred cows. By not sponsoring the Star Spangled Fourth this year, District 1 led by example.
 
This year will be difficult but not nearly as much as it could have been if we had hesitated to start cuts last year.
 
Budget Director Bryan Bradford recently told the Council that we could see $7 million fewer tax dollars this year, based on preliminary figures from the appraisal district. It is a significant hit on top of last year's hit but it is the amount that staff has been working toward almost since last fall. We've had the right target. It is not worse than we have been expecting.
 
Still, it's a lot of money to not have. It will mean impacts to employees and citizens. Probably, compensation for our hard working employees will not be at previous levels and services to our citizens will decrease.
 
Even if the economy starts a strong rebound, the effects of this downturn will be felt for a couple years or more.
 
These are tough times for the city but I don't want to be depressing. This is an opportunity to control our expenses and to restrain debt. There have been many things as a city we have not been able to afford. By tightening our shoe laces for a few years, as the economy turns and values increase, we will be much better positioned than ever before to promote Garland and to tackle many problems that have festered for years but for which there were no resources.
 
George Will recently said, in another context but the principle is the same, "Re-engagement with reality is among the recession's benefits."
 
Planning well for today allows us to plan better for tomorrow.