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September 3, 2019 Page 3 projects that were budgeted to use up that $560,000. Mr. Anderson said the quickest way to reach that amount would be to look at the capital fund where there were large ticketed items. Council Member Portugal said if they could speed up the downtown project, she would be willing to keep the tax rate or reduce it by one-half. Mayor Clifford inquired of Council how they wanted to proceed. Council Member Kn said she would like to try to see if they could keep the budget neutral. Council Member Hugh expressed concern about cutting from salaries, in that it might be more difficult to retain go employees. Council Member Portugal suggested to Mr. Ekstrom that he also contact their Sta Representative Gary VanDeaver as to the school taxes, because legisla ot tors had promised t� relief. She said the school taxes were much higher than City taxes. Retired TxDOT emploY4 Steve Ekstrom said he would nsell his house for the appraised value, and that PISD needed throttle back on their budget. I Council Member Pilgrim said he would like to see some cuts to the budget Ma Clifford said he would like Mr. Anderson to se& if he could get the budgef' neutral. M Clifford said this money had been s read uniforml - 'all over the budget, in a thousand places P yl a a y that is why the3�could not find it. He said once, Mr.. Anderson brings the budget bck tobu a] a dg eutr4l, the Council could decide if a project w4s important, and could add a little back t said they did not know what they were getting'for their money and that the Council was t guardians of taxpayer money. Council Member, Pilgrim' said they would see an increase in tax by lowering them, because lower taxes wouldO'ncourage growth. aid maybe they could I ok at general revenue and'annexi Citizen Chad Lindsey s p rop eity. Citizen James O'Bryan suggested d they use, a e part to pay off ebt and 9 gener more income. Mayor Clifford closed the j2ublic h Mr. Anderson explained that if any item was increased in this budget a public heari , would be required, and there would not be sufficient time to act on that unless staff knew wh, the increases were tonight. Mr. Anderson said if they wanted to get back to revenue neutral, alternative would be to adopt a rate that was going to allow some increase. He said then October after the budget was adopted, Council could come back and amend it. Mr. Anders said at that time, they could increase items. Mayor Clifford confirmed they could tell Anderson to decrease items, adopt a higher tax rate at a future meeting but lower than what th have, and then amend the budget in another month. Council Member Knox said by then th would have the year-end numbers, could see where they actually were andthat would be a gre, help. It was a consensus of the City Council to have Mr. Anderson try to get the budget back t® budget neutral. 5. Discuss and act on a Resolution calling a public hearing on proposed amendments to the proposed budget for fiscal year 2019-2020.