Mayor Parker to unveil city's budget plan today

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- After months of layoffs and budget cuts, Houston Mayor Annise Parker is ready to unveil her spending plan for the next fiscal year. The mayor will outline the budget at city hall this afternoon.

We won't know for sure what's being cut until we hear from the mayor this afternoon, but city department heads and leaders have been preparing us all along for the services we might not see for much longer or may see less of.

In recent weeks, we've reported that the city's parks department has been hard hit. At least 100-200 layoffs last week, which it's possible, could make for fewer city workers to take care of park facilities, affecting park hours for facilities like swimming pools and golf courses.

We talked to the health department last week, about the 84 pink slips which went out to workers there.

"It is very sad and every person here is important and they do an important job so it will be a struggle for us to overcome this," said Kathy Barton with the Houston Health Department.

When it comes to police and firefighters the mayor's office has announced tentative deals with both the police officers and firefighters unions in order to save those jobs. The deals need to be approved by the city council.

But still, with the reduction in civilian workforce, now totaling 747 -- it's difficult to imagine services won't be affected at all.

The mayor is expected to release her budget today at 12:30pm.

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local, elissa rivas

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