As the coronavirus continues to run its course, local economies are being affected left and right. In the Brazos Valley, the county and cities are starting to look at the long term affects of this pandemic in terms of next years budget.
While the ripple affect continue across local economies, external agencies and departments such as the Brazos County Health District are beginning to draft budget proposals with cuts in mind.
"The two cities and the county have directed all external agencies and the departments to propose a budget as though they were going to have to reduce it by ten percent in terms of the revenues that are going to be received from the cities and county,” explains College Station City Councilman & Health District Board Member John Nichols.
With a few different budget draft scenarios being asked from all departments, Bryan, College Station and Brazos County will then be able to see exactly how budget cuts will affect each department.
"The health district is in a good position to explain now why it's important more so than ever," said Nichols. "You’ve got to plan for the worse case scenario and that's really what this is.”
Most departments have reserve funds, or a rainy day fund of sorts, to help in case of a budgets cuts. However, the Health Department's reserve fund has depleted over the years due to inflation explains Nichols.
"The funds revenues have not kept up with the demand of service and inflation and now we are in a position where we have a crisis and we have a hard time justifying spending the money that we don't have,” Nichols said.
Since the public meeting on April 17 regarding the budget cut proposals, community members have taken to social media with worry, frustration and a lot of questions.
“You just have to go to the comments on the website or on Facebook and see people they are already confused," says College Station resident Craig Regan. "They are already trying to say, ‘wait what? they are cutting this now?'"
Though the budget proposals are highlighting the worse case scenario, Ragen believes the only way to economic recovery is through the guarantee that essential services are fully covered through the budget.
"As long as your telling the citizens that their fire department, their police department, their water and their health are going to be protected than that is going to provide the necessary foundation for the city to take the next step towards recovery,” suggests Ragen.
Decisions regarding the budget will not be made until later in the year after the summer.