CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It appears the City won't be adding any new fire or police positions this year because of budget shortfalls.
When the city council voted to double the homestead exemption tax breaks and do away with the street user fee they lost $25 million in tax revenue. That's now forcing the City Manager Peter Zanoni to look at making cuts across the board which includes our first responders.
"We will be meeting tomorrow, Saturday, with police and fire, with the police chief and fire chief to look at their budget and to look at their reduction proposals," Zanoni said.
The city manager wants all city departments to propose at least five percent in cuts to their budgets.
"One thing we're talking with both chiefs about already is that we probably won't be able to add additional positions," he said.
Police Department spokesperson Lt. Eryca Gonzalez believes the department can handle any budget cuts. It does have 34 cadets about to begin training on July 15, those recruits will replace officers who will retire or leave the department.
The city manager says the City has added 55 officers to the ranks over the past five years and now the budgeted number of officers sits at 501.
"They're going to be looking at and seeing where they can cut and see make little adjustments whether that's equipment here and there," Gonzalez said. "But, as far as how it affects the department it's not going to affect how we make those calls for service."
The fire department has been able to add 41 new positions over the past three years. It was hoped those numbers would continue to grow because Zanoni said only a third of the department's fire companies have four man crews.
Another budget being targeted is street paving.
"There potentially may be a reduction in street funding based on everything we know today cause the street user fee was not renewed in the last years budget," Zanoni said.
The budget last year was $1.5 billion. The city manager says it may not even reach that mark this year. The budget will go to council on July 30.