County commissioners to split road funds evenly
The three Democrats on the Harris County Commissioners Court, in the latest flex of their newly won majority, have begun shifting road money to their two precincts and away from the two Republican-controlled ones.
The county, like all local governments in the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s service area, gets funding from Metro for road work each year. The county has spent an average $31 million per year over the last five years, and has budgeted a similar amount this year.
The previous formula for dividing those dollars was to give 20 percent to Democratic Commissioner Rodney Ellis’ Precinct 1; 15 percent to newly elected Democratic Commissioner Adrian Garcia’s Precinct 2; 32 percent to Republican Commissioner Steve Radack’s Precinct 3, and 33 percent to Republican Commissioner Jack Cagle’s Precinct 4.
The court voted 3-2 along party lines Tuesday to divide the funds evenly among the precincts, shifting 15 percent of the dollars — a swing of more than $9 million per year, based on recent averages — from Republican-held precincts to Democrat-held ones.
Garcia and County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s victories last November flipped the court to Democratic control for the first time in decades.
Ellis’ motion, tweaked by Cagle and Hidalgo, also called for the county engineer to examine how the funds have been used in recent years and to seek a data-driven formula to guide how the funds should be divided in the future. Ellis said he also aims to change how the $120 million in toll road revenues the commissioners use annually for road projects is divided.
Cagle passed out copies of George Orwell’s “1984,” suggesting his colleagues’ oft-stated focus on “transparency” was Orwellian doublespeak, in that an innocuous agenda item stating, “Request for discussion of and possible action
on Metro funding to the county,” had resulted in a significant transfer of road funds.
“The public has a right to know before we make major financial changes of how we finance infrastructure,” Cagle said. “This is not fair. We need to have an opportunity to discuss this in the public. To change it with no notice is wrong. We ought to have transparency — real transparency — not the kind George Orwell talks about.”
Ellis said the Metro funding is only a fraction of the toll road revenues, and mentioned a 2014 vote that reduced road funding for Precinct 1.
Cagle said he planned to
inquire with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton whether Ellis’ agenda description was specific enough to satisfy the Texas Open Meetings Act. He also prompted First Assistant County Attorney Robert Soard on Tuesday to block Ellis’ initial move to reallocate how the toll revenues are divided, as those dollars were not explicitly mentioned on the posted agenda. Ellis said he would bring that item back at the court’s next meeting.
“Regardless of what the allocations are, my preference is that that be based on science,” Hidalgo said. “This hasn’t been studied.”
Ellis agreed “there ought to be some science.” He also added: “There was no science on how it was done before. The $120 million, there was no science. This system
with these fiefdoms is a thing of the past.”
County Engineer John Blount said he must gather more information to create a data-driven funding model, but said the needs are clear countywide: Precinct 4 has the most lane miles, Precinct 3 has the most thoroughfares in need of expansion, Precinct 2 has the most heavy truck traffic and asphalt roads, and Precinct 1 has the most underserved neighborhoods in need of investment.
“They all have a valid reason for saying they need more money — what is a logical and fair apportion of the money for each commissioner? That’s difficult,” Blount said. “In the past, it’s always been a political decision simply because we didn’t have all the data we
needed. I’m optimistic that in the very near future we can identify the data we don’t have to make more intelligent decisions on infrastructure funding.”
Radack said the formula change would be detrimental to the county as a whole.
“When you take a look at the growing areas of Harris County, that’s precincts 3 and 4. You’re talking about fairness and equity. How many places do you have to build roads versus how many places we’re going to have to build roads because people are going to be moving out there?” he said. “We’re not going to be able to build the infrastructure necessary to keep this county growing.”