The county judge is right: State leaders need to set their priorities in order.
The county judge is right: Our state’s leaders need to set their priorities in order.
Ed Emmett wanted his audience to know something was wrong, so he read from his tax bill.
The leader of Harris County’s government recited the numbers to a luncheon crowd gathered for last week’s State of the County address. The county judge revealed that he’ll pay $8,038 to the Houston Independent School District this year and $1,305 to the Harris County Hospital District. Then there’s $3,188 to Harris County itself, $3,068 to the city of West University Place and $920 to the Houston Community College System. But to the Harris County Flood Control District? Only $216. “Talk about out of whack,” he said. What’s out of whack is a property tax system that’s wholly inadequate for funding what should be the top priorities of government in Texas’ largest county. There’s more. As Emmett made abundantly clear in what was a bold speech, Texas has state leaders who attack local government and cravenly pander to anti-tax activists without offering solutions to the problems confronting Harris County.
Emmett didn’t name names, but he didn’t have to. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Paul Bettencourt need to quit playing to a narrow base of angry voters, stop undercutting local government leaders and start working with Houstonarea elected officials on serious issues facing the state’s largest metropolis.
Harris County isn’t just the third most populous county in the nation. Almost 2 million people live in unincorporated areas of the county. If that were a city, it would rank right behind Houston as the fifth largest in the United States. But the county government has virtually no authority to pass ordinances, and its services are funded almost entirely by property taxes.
Nonetheless, state lawmakers this year proposed legislation that would have further restricted Harris County leaders from raising the property tax revenue necessary to meet the needs of local government. For example, one bad idea that ultimately died in the capitol would have put a revenue cap on county government, using a formula based on inflation and the state’s population growth. Never mind that Harris County’s population is rising faster than the rest of the state, and none of the county government’s main services — like running a jail, paying for indigent health care and funding flood control — are tied to any measure of inflation. As Emmett himself trenchantly observed, that dumb idea was “neither logical nor conservative, it merely panders to a narrow selfinterest group.”
What the people of Harris County need out of their state government is an investment from the Rainy Day Fund to pay for a third reservoir, more money for a beleaguered indigent health care system and increased funding for mental health care and transportation. Instead we have state leaders who stubbornly reject billions in federal Medicaid funds, shrug education expenses off to local school districts and prioritize passing bills about bathrooms.
“The next time a state official makes a big deal about a fraction of a cent cut in the property tax rate, ask them why they won’t help Harris County property taxpayers fund indigent health care … ,” Emmett said. “That would be real property tax relief.”
Emmett has served as county judge for the last decade, so he certainly bears some responsibility for the shortcomings of government that he decries. His sermon on prioritizing flood control and developing another reservoir is overdue, and we’re glad he’s finally preaching it.
Hearing a political leader so bluntly and forcefully criticize the top elected officials in his own party is the kind of candor our system needs. The county judge is dead right. Our state’s elected leaders need to get their priorities straight and quit messing with local government. Something’s out of whack, and it’s not just the county judge’s tax bill.
What the people of Harris County need out of their state government is an investment from the Rainy Day Fund to pay for a third reservoir, more money for a beleaguered indigent health care system and increased funding for mental health care and transportation.