A Fort Worth suburb cancels popular July 4th festivities, summer programs
Mayor Henry Wilson was looking forward to taking his grandson swimming this summer at the Hurst Central Aquatics Center and was also anticipating going to the popular Stars & Stripes festival on July 4 which draws thousands of visitors.
But those activities aren’t taking place this year, officials said.
The economic fallout and the uncertainty of what the testing and number of cases will look like from COVID-19 brought big changes to cities’ finances with furloughs, layoffs and hard decisions about cutting back on services.
“This is the worst financial situation that I’ve seen since I started serving on the council 35 years ago,” Wilson said.
City manager Clay Caruthers said in an email to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that in March the city started making changes that included a hiring freeze.
Last week, officials decided to cancel the Stars & Stripes July 4th celebration that draws 35,000 people to Hurst and to close the aquatics center because of financial and safety concerns.
Wilson said there is uncertainty as to whether Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will allow pools to open, and said the city couldn’t justify the safety and financial risks.
Hurst is also seeing significant losses as the sales tax revenue from Northeast Mall brought in $100,000 a month, Wilson said. In Hurst, the city uses 25 percent of sales tax revenue for the general fund and 40 percent comes from property taxes, Wilson said.
Hurst is also losing money from fees as well.
“Most people don’t realize that property taxes don’t cover the police and fire operations, which is 51 percent of the budget,” Wilson said.
Abbott announced previously that cities can apply for $38 million in federal funds for coronavirus related expenses such as paying employees overtime.
In Euless, spokeswoman Betsy Deck said no decisions have been made yet to cancel summer activities.
However, the council voted unanimously last week to authorize using reserve funds to shore up the $43.5 million operating budget.
Deck said the council didn’t approve a specific amount, but gave the go-ahead to use the reserves because of concerns over sales tax dollars. The information on sales tax revenue from the state is delayed by two months, she said.
“We are trying to be as proactive as possible and have already reduced our budgets where we can this year and next year. We are planning for the worst and hoping for the best and continuing to evaluate on a weekly basis,” she said.
The picture is also grim in North Richland Hills. Last week the city council voted to temporarily cut all salaries by 2.5 percent, including the city manager’s. The cuts are expected to last through September.
Other cuts include closing non-emergency city offices May 8 and May 15 and furloughing employees. The city is facing a $1.5 million shortfall.
In Bedford, the city council will meet at 5:30 p.m Tuesday to decide on what to do about reopening city facilities and whether to have summer activities, spokeswoman Natalie Foster said.
Last month, Bedford furloughed all part-time employees and reduced pay for employees who were told to wait at home.
Haltom City Manager Rex Phelps said he and other officials are constantly monitoring finances. Phelps said he will have a better picture of how Haltom City is affected by the COVID-19 shutdown when sales tax figures come out in June.
In the meantime, Phelps said Haltom City froze most vacant positions, stopped most capital spending and canceled or postponed city events and canceled programs and activities until further notice.
Haltom City is not entirely dependent on sales tax revenue from retail. Most taxable businesses were deemed essential during the shutdown, he said.
“Our sales tax revenues are more industrial based and we believe this to be an unusual strength during times such as these…” Phelps said.
Phelps said cities are affected differently depending on how much sales tax revenue they receive and also if the sales taxes are from industry or retail.
“Some cities may not have adequate reserves to get them through a tough budget cycle,” Phelps said. “Cities that have become dependent on retail sales tax are much more vulnerable as it relates to their revenues and meeting budget requirements.”