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CITY OF NORTH RICHLAND HILLS

October 1, 2018

Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council City of North Richland Hills
North Richland Hills, Texas

North Richland Hills is a great, safe place to live and raise a family. According to the most recent
citizen survey, 96% of residents rate North Richland Hills as an excellent or good place to live.
That same percentage of residents rate the quality of life in North Richland Hills as excellent or
good, feel that North Richland Hills is an excellent or good place to raise a family, and say that
they feel safe in their neighborhood. Residents also rate the quality of public safety services very
high with 99% of residents rating fire service as excellent or good and 94% of residents rating
police service as excellent or good. This is a good thing considering that 99% of residents feel
that public safety is the most important service provided by the City of North Richland Hills.

However, North Richland Hills is an aging community with aging infrastructure including streets,
housing, water and sewer lines. This is reflected in the 2017 citizen survey results as well in that
the majority of residents would like to see an improvement in code enforcement activity, as well
as street maintenance and traffic flow. Only 59% of survey respondents rated the maintenance of
residential streets as excellent or good, and only 69% of residents rated the maintenance of major
streets as excellent or good.

Residents rate the quality of city services as excellent or good on the whole, and 92% of residents
feel that no city services should be eliminated. In addition, 71% of NRH residents feel that they
are getting good value for their tax dollars. The proposed budget maintains the high quality
services NRH residents appreciate and expect, including continuing our commitment to public
safety and enhancing our street maintenance program. The greatest challenge in funding these
services is the plateauing of sales tax revenues over the past decade. Due to competition from
developing retail areas and online retailers, sales tax revenues have not kept pace with inflation
and population growth. Over the past 20 years the percentage of budgetary revenues produced
from sales taxes has steadily declined. As a result, more of the burden for financing city services
comes only from residents.

North Richland Hills, like the majority of cities in Texas, provides for city services through various
funds and funding sources. The city budget is divided into funds which allow for the identification
of revenue and resources needed to provide the different types of services from basic municipal

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