CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — City Manager Peter Zanoni and staff of the city of Corpus Christi have proposed their next fiscal year budget. The 2024 city budget is proposed to be $1.5 billion, spread across almost 30 departments.
The city has planned five public input sessions to hear the thoughts of residents on this budget. Wednesday was the second opportunity for residents to share their input on that budget, this session taking place in District Two.
“We’re here to listen to you,” District Two Councilwoman Sylvia Campos said.
The most hot button topic in the budget for residents are tax increases for water, wastewater, storm water and solid waste.
“I would love to see the water rates for residential go down 10 cents or more and I support the increase of businesses,” resident Alice Upshaw Hawkins said. "And, some of you may remember, couple of years ago we had industries out along north part of the city owing millions of dollars in unpaid bills."
Attendees received a breakdown of how the budget will be divvied up.
Many residents spoke about the lack of funding for issues they feel deserve attention, such as mental health resources, the homeless population and bike lanes.
“If you have these protected bike lanes, it’s good for all residents for 100 years. Gym equipment is replaced in 10 years. These are things to think about; these protected bike lanes should be a priority for the accessibility, for health, many reasons, the local economy,” resident Shirin Delsooz said.
The next public input session is Thursday, 6 p.m. at the Water Utilities Building at 2726 Holly Rd.
The fourth meeting is Monday, 6 p.m. at Ethel Eyerly Senior Center at 654 Graham Rd.
The final meeting is Wednesday, Aug. 16, 6 p.m. at Del Mar College's new Oso Creek Campus Culinary Building at 7002 Yorktown Blvd.
Any resident from any district can attend any of the meetings.
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