Council here this week continued its deliberations over the 2020 budget but also focused on the District of Houston’s rolling five-year financial plan which sets out District project spending priorities and how they will be financed.
The plan is renewed annually, dropping the year that’s passed and adding a new year so that council retains its five-year spending and project forecast.
The plan incorporates how the District of Houston will maintain and replace major infrastructure such as roads and sewer and water works as needed but also the intended progress of major projects such as the beautification of Hwy16 and continued beautification of the downtown core.
Recreational amenities planning also plays a key roll, such as improvements to parks and playgrounds and planning for the replacement of the aging community hall.
“These projects are contemplated and identified well in advance of their completion date. In the 2019-2023 Financial Plan, we had 63 projects over five years approved for funding,” notes District of Houston chief administrative officer Gerald Pinchbeck.
“There are 30 projects being carried forward into the 2020-2024 Financial Planning Period.”
Of that list, eight are considered multi-year, eight are projects for which monies were secured in 2019, 10 are on the list for this year which were approved last year and four others for the years 2021-2024.
There’s also flexibility as draft five-year plans are drawn up each year and debated before becoming official.
One example is reallocating monies intended for road projects this year to the downtown improvement project, a move that helped make up for higher than anticipated costs for the latter.
The new plan under contemplation also contains projects approved last year for which financing has been secured.
“The best example would be our playground safety upgrades project or the 2019 portion of the Highway 16 improvement project,” said Pinchbeck.
And there remains $5,000 in the budget for the District of Houston’s portion of the cost of a new electric vehicle recharging station which is part of a larger effort by local governments along Hwy16 to create a network intended to bolster ownership of electric vehicles.
For this year, the proposed renewed five-year plan forecasts a minor expenditure of $25,000 to begin a comprehensive redevelopment of Jamie Baxter Park, increasing to $200,000 a year in both 2021 and 2023 and concluding with $100,000 in 2023.
One major construction project is replacing the aging community hall, carrying a price tag so far of $4.94 million. Of that amount, $40,000 is to be spent this year, with $490,000 forecast in 2021 and major construction worth $4.410 million in 2022.
Projects being carried over from the previous five-year plan come with a total price tag of $19,105,723 with new projects coming in at $3,715,020, said Pinchbeck.
And when it comes to financing the various projects, council members have that information readily available as well.
The projects being carried forward will be financed by general revenues at $550,000, grants at $6,145,370, $2,417,823 in District surpluses, $5,915,111 from District reserves including what’s left from a major provincial grant received last year, $922,500 from a federal gas rebate, $1,525,000 from water reserves and $1 million from sewer reserves.
The 17 new proposals would be financed through $55,000 in general revenues, $2,824,650 from grants, $671,370 from the District’s surplus, $139,000 from other reserves including a portion of the major provincial grant received last year, $15,000 from the federal gas tax rebate and $10,000 in sewer reserves.