This Week: Council Approves FY2020 Budget; Houston Celebrates Juneteenth; LGBTQ+ Pride Festival and Parade; Two Public Meetings: Cottage Grove East CIP & Dunlavy St CIP

Council Approves FY2020 Budget

After over a month of departmental reviews and eight hours of deliberations, on June 19th, Council successfully passed a balanced budget for the upcoming fiscal year, FY2020, which will begin on July 1st, 2019. Totaling $5.1B, the new budget closes the $117M deficit with no layoffsof police, fire, or municipal workers. Budget highlights:

• $2.1B General Fund Budget
• Five new police cadet classes
• Fully funds Houston’s three employee pention systems
• Maintains a healthy fund balance in case of emergencies, with contingency funds for firefighter pay raises and hurricane preparedness
• Commits to “Zero-based budgeting” for the next budgetary cycle

Learn more about the City of Houston Budget Process »

Houston Celebrates Juneteenth

On Wednesday, June 19th, Houston celebrated Juneteenth and the 154th anniversary of the announcement in Texas of the abolition of slavery. Though President Abraham Lincoln’sEmancipation Proclamation legally freed slaves in Confederate states as of January 1, 1863, the news did not reach Texas and was not enforced until after the collapse of the rebellion. On June 19th, 1865, Union General Gordan Granger landed in Galveston and announced that the war had ended and all slaves were free.

Racial segregation laws would be in place for the following century, until the Civil Rights Act of 1965. These barred African Americans from, among many other civil rights, using public property to celebrate Juneteenth. To resist this type of oppression in Houston, the Reverend Jack Yates led fundraising efforts to purchase land that could be a home to Juneteenth celebrations. In 1872, he and his congregation at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, as well as other contributors, succeeded in purchasing ten acres of open land and named itEmancipation Park. Both Antioch Missionary Baptist Church and Emancipation Park were recognized this year as UNESCO World Heritage sites, and Emancipation Park is still home to annual Juneteenth celebrations.

Juneteenth was recognized as an official state holiday beginning in Texas in 1980, and is now formally observed in 46 states.

LGBTQ+ Pride Festival and Parade

The 41st Annual Houston LGBTQ+ Pride Festival and Parade takes place thisSaturday, June 22nd. This iconic event attracts over 700,000 attendees from all over the world and is the 4th largest Pride celebration in the US. The festival begins at 12PM and the Parade begins at 8PM at the corner of Lamar St at Smith St downtown.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City, which launched the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. Mayor Pro Tem Cohen stands in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community and looks forward to celebrating her 13th year marching in the Pride Parade!

Two Public Meetings: Cottage Grove East CIP & Dunlavy St CIP