Community Impact.
Community Impact has a straightforward report on the coming challenges for Richardson's finances. The bottom line: "Richardson could see a budget shortfall in the next few years due to the statewide cap on property tax increases."
Except...the story doesn't explain why a 3.5% cap on annual revenue increases, although sounding reasonable, is really insufficient to keep up with rising costs due to factors like population growth, growing maintenance demands of aging infrastructure, added costs for infrastructure hardening for increases in extreme weather events, rising health insurance premiums for city employees, customer demands for service level increases that drive technology upgrades, new unfunded state and federal mandates on water quality, storm water runoff, public safety demands, etc. All this is on top of the familiar rising price of eggs.
Don't be surprised if Richardson isn't backed into a corner, needing to call an election for voter approval to set a tax rate that increases tax revenue collections by more than 3.5% some year.
"Three point five percent,
Might sound fair, even ample,
Might not tread water.'
—h/t ChatGPT
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