Council members debate faster replenishment and larger floor for Houston’s budget stabilization fund

Council Member Abby Kamen offered a budget amendment (8.01) to alter the city's budget stabilization policy, proposing to increase the minimum stabilization amount from the greater of 1% of general fund expenditures or $20 million to the greater of 1% or $25 million and to require replenishment of the fund within 365 days of a drawdown.

Melissa Dabowski, the city's finance director, described the administration's position: the administration supports increasing the minimum to the greater of 1% or $25 million but warned that the proposed 365-day replenishment timeline would be difficult to meet in many disaster cases because FEMA public-assistance reimbursements are reimbursement-based and can take well over a year to obligate and close out. "Typically, what we see is that in the past it is more than 365 days after the disaster event that we would have finally closed out those…