Just how bad was Ike's toll on city budgets?
Hurricane Ike's been making things difficult for the people who put together budgets for the cities of Clear Lake, of course, but who's got it worst?
Houston Chronicle reporter Mike Snyder wrote this weekend about a town that lost its foundation to the hurricane. Almost completely residential, Shoreacres relies heavily on property taxes, and Ike flooded 575 of Shoreacres' 691 houses. Ninety won't be rebuilt at all, and with only one business in town - the Houston Yacht Club -- Shoreacres can't depend on sales tax to make up the difference.
A comparison to other towns in our area:
Property tax base for Shoreacres, down 22.6 percent.
Nassau Bay, down 5.6 percent.
El Lago, down 1.7 percent.
Seabrook, down 3.6 percent.
La Porte, down 4.5 percent.
Pasadena, down 2.2 percent.
Read more about Shoreacres' predicament from the Houston Chronicle.


