Residents asked questions and learned more about the upcoming College Station budget (2024)

Poster boards lined the inside of city chambers Monday night as residents were invited to brave the rainstorm and stop by to ask questions about the city of College Station’s proposed budget.

College Station hosted the budget open house ahead of Thursday’s planned public budget hearing. The current proposed budget is $540.51 million with $366.16 million (68%) proposed to go toward operating and maintenance (O&M) and $174.35 million (32%) proposed to go toward capital. City staff said the O&M budget increased around 2.5% and the capital budget increased 29% compared to Fiscal Year 2024. The capital budget increase is due to new and rehabilitated water wells and voter-approved projects from the 2022 bond election that will begin construction.

Jeff Kersten, assistant city manager and chief financial officer, was present at the open house to answer citizens’ questions.

“The budget is a really important process and it’s a 400-page document. There’s a lot of information in there and it can be a little overwhelming,” Kersten said. “Really, this is an informal way for people to come in and ask questions.”

Many residents asked how the budget would affect themselves and their children, Kersten said.

“We’ve had questions on everything from ‘What are we doing with pickleball courts?’ and ‘How is this utility rate change going to impact me?’” he said. “Again, this is a good way to get some feedback from our citizens.”

Kersten said city staff are interested in holding future open houses to keep citizens engaged in the process of budgeting.

“We’re going to look and see how this [open house] went and start asking what are ways we can get more people out,” he said. “We’ve had really good conversations with the folks we’ve had, but I think we would certainly like to get more people to come out.”

College Station resident Keith Sylvester asked questions regarding electricity and water.

“I think we, as citizens, can bring experiences that we have. We’ve all been around the block sometimes,” Sylvester said. “I would like for the city to consider where we get our water from with the current situation of using wells that are drying out. I’m also looking at hopefully offering ideas on top of electricity and buying electricity.”

Having lived in College Station since 1994, Sylvester said he’s seen the city grow and hopes the increased population will not impede essentials.

“This is a place where I’ve chosen to be because I’ve worked in other places but kept my home base here and I can tell you College Station is a hidden jewel,” he said. “College Station offers a lot now in my older age. We’ve established good friends and defined the people we like.”

Sylvester said he appreciated how open the city was about its budget processes and his questions were readily answered by city staff.

“It means a lot because I actually read the budget before I came. … This is not a simple task, running a city is very complex, just like running a business. Sometimes, outside looking in, we think it’s so easy. Coming today is my effort to begin to understand them and see how I can benefit the city with my skill sets.”

Peter Brown said he had many questions regarding unfamiliar words or processes on the budget that he had answered at the meeting.

“I’ve seen various things in the news and on Facebook about the city budget and I’ve been curious about some of the details of where I can find things and not have to wade through things to find some of my answers,” he said. “So, when I saw that this was going on, it was at a convenient time. I just thought I’d pop on over and see what was going on.”

Brown said he wanted to know how the budget would affect him in various ways, including his travel commute.

“The city has grown a lot, especially with bigger apartment buildings. I remember there was a survey early on in my time here about rush hour traffic and how much time we felt was reasonable,” he said. “I felt it was almost a silly question because it was so short comparatively, but now, when I’m getting off work, I have to plan.”

After asking questions and looking at the available poster boards, Brown said he felt prepared to understand the budget and better formulate questions.

“I was curious about the overall scope of the budget and how much of that was taken up by capital projects that would involve taking on debt,” he said. “Sometimes it’s just a matter of vocabulary, just this word on this page meaning the same thing as the word on this page. … They more than answered my questions in terms of how much debt we were paying.”