ALICE, TX. — The city manager in Alice is making some changes to the budget, because the city recently saw a significant decrease in sales-tax revenue.
The city's sales-tax revenue had a deficit of almost $150,000 for the first two months of the fiscal year, which is just more than $70,000 a month, on average.
That's now led to the city defunding several positions including assistant city manager, evidence crime scene investigator, parks groundskeeper, inspection official, and public works director. Currently, these positions are unfilled.
"Just the fact that this happened in the beginning of the fiscal year, and the numbers were large enough, it warranted -- in my eyes -- a budget revision to remove that out of the budget," said Alice City Manager Michael Esparza.
The budget adjustment will help make up for lost sales-tax revenue during the first two months of the fiscal year.
In previous years, a decline in the oil-field industry led to a decrease in sales-tax revenue. However it's still unclear what led to this decline.
Meanwhile, Esparza said he requested a confidential report from the Texas Comptroller, which will highlight which industry caused the decreases.
"We're being proactive," Esparza said. "It may adjust in the next couple months, and we may make up that money, but we're just being careful and being conservative."
