Finance
Greater Houston Partnership Statement on Texas School Finance Legislation
Public Policy
Mayor Whitmire Puts Forth Balanced Budget for FY 26, Closing Major Budget Shortfall
5/8/25
Mayor John Whitmire released the City of Houston’s proposed $7 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 operating budget, which includes a balanced General Fund. For Houston’s business community, sound fiscal management at City Hall is more than just good governance – it’s essential to maintaining the services and infrastructure that enable our region to thrive. Perhaps most significantly, this plan reduces General Fund spending – the city’s primary tax-supported budget – by 2.4%, or $74.5 million.
“We applaud Mayor Whitmire for making hard choices to put forward a balanced budget proposal,” said Steve Kean, President and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership. “The mayor has made good on his commitment to address waste and duplication, and the Partnership is committed to working with his administration to put the City on a sustainable path, delivering the quality services Houstonians expect.”
Explore the City’s structural deficit and potential solutions in our report, State of the City’s Finances: A Deep Dive into Houston’s Fiscal Issues Facing the City.
Key savings in the budget come from a combination of:
Workforce reductions: Over 1,000 city employees took advantage of the Voluntary Municipal Employee Retirement Payment Option, resulting in over $99 million in annual savings across all funds, including $29 million for the General Fund.
Operational efficiencies: Department budget reductions reached $16 million in savings.
Strategic reforms: $19 million associated with the consolidation of departments.
These efficiencies recommended in the Ernst & Young Citywide Efficiency Study underscore the city’s commitment to fiscal responsibility moving forward.
The proposed budget also addresses critical public safety needs, funding the first year of a new police contract and the second year of the firefighter contract. While also providing infrastructure investments, as the budget sets aside $184 million from property tax revenue for street and drainage projects, aligning with the recent drainage settlement agreement.
During the press conference, the mayor highlighted that while this budget is balanced through efficiency and cost-cutting, the door remains open for future revenue discussions:
“It would be wrong for me to say we are not going to allow Houstonians to consider a garbage fee or other matters,” the mayor said. “My responsibility is to balance the budget and provide services. I made a commitment to address waste and duplication. [Later] we will talk to Houstonians about the type of city they want to live in.”
What’s next: Over the next two weeks, department directors will present their budgets in a series of workshops providing a deeper look into the FY 26 budget through Tuesday, May 20. After these sessions, City Council will review the budget, with a final vote expected in June.
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Finance
Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help
A girl from a disadvantaged rural family in central China topped this year’s gaokao, attracting numerous live-streamers eager to finance her education, which she declined.
The home of 18-year-old secondary school graduate Han Yaping in a Henan province village was recently bustling with live-streamers.
This attention came after Han achieved an impressive score of 699 out of 750 in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam.
She has received offers from China’s two leading universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University.
Han’s accomplishment is particularly remarkable given her family’s impoverished circumstances.
Her mother suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine, preventing her from working. Her father, who earns a living through farming and odd jobs, serves as the family’s sole provider. Han also has a younger sister.
Finance
UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a landmark review on Monday that proposes recommendations to regulate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the financial decisions made by consumers.
The review, titled the Mills Review, anticipates that both consumers and firms will start delegating “more financial decision-making to AI systems,” including for agreements, initiating transactions, and executing decisions “within agreed parameters.” One of the key findings of the review outlined that while AI can help bridge advice gaps and “support growth,” there remain risks “associated with fraud, cyber security, and consumer harm.” Conducting the review, Sheldon Mills highlighted that “AI can also amplify risks: bias, discrimination, exclusion, opaque decision-making (particularly when multiple AI models interact), misleading or hallucinatory advice and erosion of consumer trust.”
The review stated that presently, one in five adults in the UK are “already open to AI making decisions for them,” particularly when decisions feel “complex or high stakes.” It found that roughly 26 percent of the population “trust general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for financial advice” with little awareness that such platforms provide no “formal routes to recourse” or protections.
Overall, the Mills Review identified four areas that it anticipates will be impacted by AI in the financial sector: “the transformation of firms,” “new consumer journeys,” “a reshaped competition landscape,” and “amplified financial crime and cyber risk.” The FCA projected the shift in how consumers and firms consult AI to take place by 2030.
The Mills Review put forth seven “priority” recommendations to be considered by the FCA Board. It recommended that any transitions to autonomous AI models be monitored and that regulatory frameworks and perimeters be adapted and secured. The review called for the strengthening of “system-wide coordination and oversight,” the scaling up of the FCA’s AI Lab to enable it to support AI models and innovation for agentic finance, and an “AI-enabled agentic supervisory model” to be built and adopted. Finally, it recommended that a trusted “public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service” be developed.
The FCA announced, in the press release, that it will launch an AI “good and poor practice publication” in late 2026.
Finance
Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approved a one-year audit contract capped at $131,750 plus $225 per hour during a virtual meeting Monday, along with a new finance director job description.
The contract is with Mauldin & Jenkins Certified Public Accountants, an Atlanta-based firm, and covers the 2025-26 fiscal year and the restatement of the 2024-25 fiscal year and ancillary services through FY 2029-2030. The work is set to be completed by Nov. 15.
The board approved the contract in a 5-0 vote.
Audit contract details
Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the cost is already accounted for in the district’s budget.
“And is actually less than we expected given our current situation — we were thrilled with the bid,” Koch said.
Koch said she believes this is Mauldin & Jenkins’ first school district audit in Kentucky, but that the firm works with school districts of more than 100,000 students throughout the Southeast.
“Quite frankly when I spoke to the folks at KDE they were thrilled because we’re running kind of short of auditors who want to do school district audits — so all around I think this was a win-win for everyone,” Koch said.
New finance director position
The board also approved a new job description for the position of Director of Finance. Acting Superintendent Dr. Bill Bradford said the title will replace two associate director positions.
“Which will not only save the school district money but it’s also going to streamline our work and align internal controls to make room for a more efficient unit,” Bradford said.
Koch said the position will be posted as soon as possible following the board’s approval.
Closed session
The board went into closed session for more than an hour to discuss pending investigations that could lead to employee discipline. When the board returned, it took no action and adjourned the meeting.
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