ODESSA, Texas — City officials in Odessa met Tuesday to go over the proposed budget for the 2023-2024 year.
A plethora of topics were on the agenda, ranging from development exemptions to tax rates to department budgets.
Also, for the first time in city history, Odessa went to what they called "zero budgeting."
Before zero budgeting, each department took their numbers from last year, added in an increase then worked with the city manager to find a middle ground.
Now, their work is a lot more thorough.
“Every department went to zero and went line item by line item to justify if this was a one-time expense or an ongoing why you needed that expense," Odessa Mayor Javier Joven said. "So, you had to find those justifications, you basically had to present why you needed it, why it went unoccupied or why you needed to add extra personnel.”
Meetings like this allow the Odessa City Council to look over everything about the future budget.
The work is tedious since there's a lot of money to take account of. But, it is work that must be done after Joven wanted to show more financial responsibility regarding the budget.
“It’s crucial, because just like at home, you go line item by line item, and be able to discern from wants and needs. Same way as in the budget, but we’re just dealing with millions of dollars in the budget here," Joven said. "So, it’s very critical that we account for every dollar and that we are spending it wisely.”
Another part of the discussion was the city tax rates, specifically property and sales tax rates and what they plan to do with that money.
“What we’re going to wind up seeing is that we anticipate seeing a slight decrease in the property. We have a huge increase that we have seen in sales tax, and it looks like we are going to be on the plus side of over $10 million," Joven said. "We are going to set aside about a million dollars for the 380 abatements that we do to be able to recruit businesses that are incoming to the city."
Mayor Joven said that this revenue can be used as investments to improve Odessa.
"Investment is what we've always wanted to do," Joven said. "We want to invest in the basics [and go] back to the basics. Our water pipes, our infrastructure, our roads, cost of quality of life and cost of living for our employees."
Joven is hoping that everything regarding the proposed budget will be wrapped up by the Sept. 30 deadline.