03-28-11 Regular Meeting, Public Hearing and Workshop Meeting of the La Porte City Council

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The annual budget serves as the foundation for the City of La Porte's financial planning and control. Budgetary control has been established at the fund level. All agencies of the City of La Porte are required to submit requests for appropriation to the City Manager on or before May 26 of each year. The City Manager uses these requests as the starting point for developing a proposed budget. The City Manager then presents this proposed budget to council for review prior to August. The council is required to hold a public hearing on the proposed budget and to adopt a final budget by no later than September 30th. The appropriated budget is prepared by fund, function (e.g., public safety) and department (e.g., police). The directors are given latitude to approve transfers of appropriations within a department. Transfers of appropriations between funds, however require the special approval of the city council. Budget -to- actual comparisons are provided in financial reports for each individual governmental fund for which an appropriated annual budget has been adopted. For the general fund, this comparison is presented on page 79 as part of the required supplementary information. For governmental funds, other than the general fund, with appropriated annual budgets, this comparison is presented in the governmental fund subsection of this report, which starts on page 83. Formal budgetary integration is employed as a management control device during the year for the General Fund and Enterprise Funds. Formal budget integration is not employed for the Debt Service and Capital Projects Funds because effective budgetary control is alternatively achieved through bond indenture provisions and legally binding construction contracts, respectively. Economic Condition The information presented in the financial statements is perhaps best understood when it is considered from the broader perspective of the specific environment within which the City of La Porte operates. Local economy. The City of La Porte is located in the southeast quadrant of Harris County, which is a 1,723 square mile county is a leading oil, gas and petrochemical areas. The County has more than 3,200 manufacturing plants, the nation's largest concentration of petrochemical plants, the third largest United States seaport and is a corporation management center. A significant part of the County's major employers, manufacturers, education and financial institutions are located in Houston, the County seat. The Texas Medical Center, located in Harris County, is one of the nation's largest, providing medical care and educational opportunities. The county's 64 hospitals have over 17,000 beds of which 4,600 are in the Texas Medical Center. Higher education facilities includes: University of Houston, Rice University, Texas Southern University, St. Thomas University and Houston Baptist College, all offering full four -year as well as postgraduate programs. The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is also located here. Located some 20 miles southeast of Houston on Galveston Bay in Harris County are the three communities that make up the La Porte Bayshore Area: La Porte, Morgan's Point and Shoreacres. The area has a combined population of approximately 40,000. Though much of the image of this area is industrial, the La Porte - Bayshore area is still characterized by an expanse of resort homes. Because of this, and the metropolitan advantages of Houston, La Porte is one of the few communities in the Gulf Coast area that offers this favorable combination. Future planning. The La Porte 2020 Comprehensive Plan is a 20 -year master plan adopted by the City Council to guide policy decisions relating to the physical and economic development of the community. In general, the plan indicates how the community desires to develop and redevelop 5