Founders Thoughts 08.20.22

Thoughts from 8/20/22 RHRocs Meeting (#3) – these are my own thoughts – please enlighten me if you have more information. 

Now, I’m still learning about the finances of the city, and I am by no means an expert, but I am trying to ask the right questions.   We cannot be afraid to ask questions, this is how we gain knowledge.

Budgets are boring, I get it.  However, we cannot complain about how the money is or is not spent, if we don’t read and study the budget and ask the questions that are necessary to understand the budget.

Today, an interest point was brought up – there are 50 miles of sewer lines, 50 miles of water lines and 50 miles of streets (10 miles are maintained by TXDot i.e., Baker Blvd/SH183)

How many of those miles still need major repairs (not just small pothole patches)?  I drove thru south of RH picking up meeting signs tonight and I found many jarring holes.

We have 20M+/- in bonds/debt due to Fire Station, The Link, etc…   So we really don’t want another bond, but we have one coming within next 1-3 years due to Glenview matching fund grants (10.4M total, 5.2M on RH, and may grow due to increased costs).

Now, I’m not trying to cause a problem here, but at what point do we say – no more park improvements, no more memorials, no more xyz, until we finish the roads, sewers, water lines and flooding issues (one exception on parks – erosion control on Calloway Creek/Creek Trail Park).  And how about the city keeps that $36 they are going to save me on property tax (city’s portion – 2%) and put it into a special fund for infrastructure alone.

I do believe that we need to expand our sales tax income.  But I think instead of another marketing group survey/plan, maybe we need to talk to commercial real estate agents and ask what would bring businesses to Richland Hills.   Our industrial park is clean and very healthy with business.   Baker Blvd, Glenview & Handley Ederville are in sore need of zoning overlays to guide the future businesses we would like to see.  It’s not a quick fix, but it starts us down the right path.

I believe the city is preparing a budget that they think will satisfy the residents and take care of business in an increasing more expensive world.  It’s hard to allocate money on things that can’t be seen (underground), it appears that no progress is made.  When I bought my house, the first 3 years was tons of money being spent on unseen things – foundation repairs, insulation, etc…    It truly looked as if we had done nothing to the house itself.  Once those items were taken care of and we had a good structure, we were able to put money into the pretty things, landscaping, shutters, etc…  

I asked if we could put any excess revenues (over budget sales taxes, property taxes from new builds) and place it into a special fund for infrastructure – I was told that it would require a year to restructure the funds and that there were limits imposed on the percentages spend on different items.   I would love to think that in a year, we could start to see real progress in our repairs, while also growing our economy.

Ok that’s all of my thoughts on the subject for now.  I am eager to learn more about how we can restructure and increase our funds for long term infrastructure repairs.   Keeping in mind that it is actually an ongoing need and will need to be funded permanently to maintain.

Actually, one more thought.  The Richland Hills Development Corporation  (headed by the Mayor, membership includes city council members and two citizens (Bill Agan & Jorge Cisneros) sets the budget for many of the projects (economic development, parks development, business development, etc.)     Please attend these meetings to show that we are paying attention, we want to know where the money is being spent and to have a say in how it is being spent.

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