City of Houston has more to spend....

....which means that we'll see an increase in boondoggles right?

City finances get a boost from HCAD projection, Chris Moran, ChronBlog

The city of Houston may have $21 million more in income in the coming fiscal year than it had planned on before Wednesday. That’s when it got the news that the Harris County Appraisal District projects that taxable values in the city — and by extension, the amount of taxes it collects on that property — will rise 4.54 percent in 2012.

The article goes on to say that sales tax revenues were up 10-11% in the first half of Fiscal Year 2012, meaning another $26 Million that the City will have to play with for this year.

While I'm not opposed to the City receiving more money, I am concerned with the manner in which they will spend it. The last few days have revealed some stunning spending priorities by the Parker administration, given the current economic climate. If things start getting better (and I hope they do) who knows where Mayor Parker is going to want to direct those funds?

Given the problems the City is facing with the pension fund, police and firefighter staffing, infrastructure et al. you would like to think the money would be directed there. Given Houston's recent history however I expect it to go toward a "world class" Ugandan language and cultural center designed to bring an expected wave of Ugandan immigrants into Houston culture or some nonsense like that. After all, we do know Herroner likes the Internets, and I'm sure she's seen the Kofy video by now....