Chronicle: Missouri City Officials Propose Drawing Nearly $1 Million From City Surplus Funds ("Fund Balance") For FY2010--click the title link for

"In the event of an emergency or unforeseen, necessary expenditures, the approved budget also includes a $950,000 fund for reserves and contingencies, which was drawn from the city’s fund balance of $7.9 million. That will leave a fund balance of about $7.2 million, which is 22.09 percent of the city’s budgeted revenue..." Houston Chronicle

Note: This is the second year in a row that the city manager has drawn down the "fund balance" post-QVGC purchase. The only question remaining is will officials push to raise the cities tax rate again for FY 2010. According to local reports Missouri City has the highest property taxes (due to NO homeowners exemptions for under 65) for a city its size in Fort Bend County as well as having some of the highest home foreclosure rates in the area.

Chron Update: City seeks out of court settlement with former owners of QVGC (how much has the city already spent on legal costs on this issue?).

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/fortbend/news/6484363.html

http://blogs.chron.com/fortbend/archives/2009/06/post_24.html#comments