Galveston in desperate need of money

Houston Chronicle:

Citing an urgent need for cash to keep this fragile island city functioning, local leaders called on state legislators Wednesday to summon the same resolve that helped Galveston rebuild after a devastating hurricane a century ago.

Revenues from property and sales taxes and other sources are dropping so sharply that layoffs of city employees are imminent even after the city slashed spending and cut all its employees' pay by 3 percent, City Manager Steve LeBlanc told the House Select Committee on Hurricane Ike on Wednesday.

He asked that the state refund all or part of the sales tax revenues generated on the island for two years and provide a long-term, low-interest loan from an emergency fund that's now empty.

...

Getting a hundred percent of a shrinking pool of sales tax receipts does not sound like a sustainable lifeline. I am not sure what the answer is for Galveston. If the community is to remain viable, they need an industry that can survive devastating storms every hundred years or so. For now they need to figure out how to survive with a much smaller population base.

The cities main employer, UTMB, is looking for several hundred million to recover from Hurricane Ike. Those request will be a test for the determination of the legislature to rebuild Galveston.