Marshall Makes Necessary Budgetary Adjustments

[Marshall, Texas, April 27, 2020]

[Marshall, Texas] As the City of Marshall prepares for the full effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its impact on city revenues, the city will furlough eleven full-time and five part-time employees within destination-related city departments currently impacted by COVID-19 community safeguards. To further the savings, the city intends to freeze the hiring of any open positions within all City of Marshall departments.

The City of Marshall is utilizing furloughs to protect the city’s financial condition yet maintain a level of support to employees impacted, through no fault of their own.

In addition to the furloughs, the city is reducing total expenses utilizing Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) Funds, some $250,000 from the 2020 budget.

City Manager Mark Rohr said, “We hope these adjustments are temporary, but we have got to keep a close eye on city revenues to make sure we meet our obligations. We will continue to monitor the fallout to determine if further modifications are necessary to meet the essential city services to citizens and our debt payments.”

In 2020, the City of Marshall will have a debt payment due to $362,000 for Memorial City Hall. A significant budget shortfall in HOT funds could cause a default on that debt payment and further impact the taxpayers of the City of Marshall. Rohr added, “These moves are an attempt to prevent that from occurring.”

It is imperative for the City of Marshall to get on the front end of this financial shortfall as we have already seen a projected 50% reduction in HOT Funds from March and a 10% reduction in sales tax for April. We anticipate the sales tax revenue and HOT revenue to drop further in the coming months based on the community COVID-19 safeguards implemented. “Ultimately, our goal is to be proactive to stabilize our budget and maintain the highest quality of city services, while impacting the fewest number of employees,” stated City Manager Mark Rohr.