Page 14 - N. Richland Hills General Budget

Office of the City Manager
CITY OF NORTH RICHLAND HILLS

$3,000,000 will address unanticipated expenditures as a result of departmental resources being redirected
from original budgeted purposes.

In spite of the COVID-19 crisis and corresponding impact, there have been several bright spots over the past
year that will help in future years. One bright spot is that residential building activity continues to be fairly
strong. A second bright point is the achievement of a viable development plan for the City Point area around
City Hall. In Fall 2019, the City Council approved agreements with Centurion American for development of
370 single-family residences including 170 detached urban and bungalow homes along with 200 townhomes.
The development will also include 400 apartments and 70,000-square-feet of commercial space. The project
includes the first Public Improvement District (PID) for NRH along with our third Tax Increment Financing (TIF)
district as a means of funding infrastructure related to the project. Underground utility work started on the
project in April with the first residences planned to be under construction by late 2021.

While there has been a loss of some businesses related and unrelated to the COVID-19 situation, we are
eagerly anticipating the opening of Sweetie Pie’s Ribeye restaurant this fall. The building is substantially
complete and was originally planned for opening this past spring. However, the opening is being delayed until
restaurant capacity is not significantly restricted.

The widening of Rufe Snow was completed in October 2019. During 2020 there were no major road
construction projects underway in NRH. We hoped to change this with a Capital Programs Advisory
Committee (CPAC) that was formed in 2019 to review the need for major road projects and recommend a
bond program if necessary. The CPAC met seven (7) times and recommended that the City Council call a
bond election in May 2020 for $49,875,000 in street bonds. The bond program would not involve a tax
increase and could be funded through the retirement of existing debt over the next five to nine years
depending on the level of property value growth in the city. Unfortunately, the May election was moved to
November 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so we do not have an outcome that we can incorporate in the
2020/21 budget. However, the Adopted 2020/21 Budget does include debt service for the issuance of
$3,860,000 in general obligation bonds approved in 2003 for the reconstruction of Glenview Drive from Rufe
Snow to Boulevard 26. This was the highest priority street based on the CPAC review process that was
eligible for funding from the 2003 bond election.
General Fund

The General Fund Budget proposes expenditures of $50,048,869, which is $258,334 lower than the 2019/20
Approved Budget. The reason for the decrease is a reduction in several revenue sources:

• Franchise Fees dropped $193,443 as a result of a recent change in state law that allows
telecommunications franchises who provide both cable and telephone services to only pay franchise
fees on one of these services. Since the implementation of this law in 2019, franchise fee revenues
from telecommunication companies have dropped $437,448.
• Reimbursement from the State of Texas for ambulance fees not recovered for the transport of
Medicaid patients was projected to be $400,000 in 2019/20. However, a reduction by the state in
reimbursement amounts will only provide approximately $124,000 in 2020/21. This produces a
revenue drop of $276,000.

P.O. Box 82069  North Richland Hills, Texas 76182-0609
4301 City Point Drive  (817) 427-6003  Fax (817) 427-6016

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