Commissioners OK $3.3B county budget
General fund to include investments to help with issues including pollution, public health
Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday unanimously approved a $3.3 billion general fund budget that includes new investments in pollution control, public health and attorneys for indigent criminal defendants.
The $64 million in new spending represents a 2 percent increase over the current budget.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia praised the spending plan, which he said is based on a new model that seeks to fund needs rather than departments, as a more sensible approach to meeting the needs of residents.
“With a metrics-based budget … this is another new day in county government,” Garcia said.
County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the new budget process is more transparent and said the county has made key improvements after events in the past two years, including the 2019 series of chemical fires and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“This budget isn’t perfect, but we’re light years ahead of where we were in terms of ensuring we’re using every dollar wisely to help tear down barriers no individual can take on alone,” Hidalgo said in a statement.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recession it caused, Harris County’s finances have held up relatively well, Budget Director David Berry told court members during briefings in recent weeks. The county has been able to avoid rounds of layoffs, helped by $462 million in aid through the federal CARES Act.
In September, Berry reported the county had severely depleted its reserves, from $313 million down to $40 million, largely because of $221 million in expenses related to the county’s COVID-19 response. The county expects most of those costs to be reimbursed by the federal government; the fund will rebound to $135 million by the end of February, the county auditor estimates.
The new budget assumes Commissioners Court will not need to adjust the property tax rate in the fall. Court members have cut the rate for two consecutive years; one when Republicans blocked a tax increase proposed by Democrats and a second the group approved unanimously.
By streamlining services and spending less on debt service, the new budget includes $132 million in new investments. Those line items include increases for the
fire marshal and Pollution Control Services, totaling $1.3 million, to improve the county’s response to chemical incidents, and $5 million to launch a non-law enforcement 911 system to handle incidents including mental health crises.
The budget also includes $18 million for several justice and safety initiatives, including the hiring of visiting judges to help clear a backlog in criminal cases, expanding the Public Defender’s Office and studying racial and ethnic disparities in policing, nonpunitive responses to social problems and strategies to prevent violence.
Berry proposed holding back $19 million in reserve to potentially allocate when Commissioners Court does its mid-year budget review in September, and members agreed.
An additional round of federal stimulus aid for local governments would help in the future, Berry’s budget summary states, though the county is not counting on another influx of cash.
Commissioners Court last year also refinanced $2.7 billion in toll road debt, leading to $60 million in savings. The panel also attempted to restructure the management of the Harris County Toll Road Authority, a move that would allow a lump sum of $300 million and $90 million annually in toll revenue to be shifted for other uses.
Commissioners Court later abandoned that idea after Attorney General Ken Paxton raised questions about the legality of the move.
Future property tax revenues are one area of concern. While home values continue to increase, the commercial and industrial property sectors have struggled during the pandemic, leading the budget office to project a 2 percent drop in the overall tax base. Jail overcrowding also remains an issue. The budget proposal does not include an additional $24 million for pandemic-related overtime labor costs requested by Sheriff Ed Gonzalez; Berry persuaded Commissioners Court to study the issue further.
Court members also unanimously approved a new Flood Control District budget of $120 million, the same as the current year; and a Toll Road Authority budget of $261 million, a 5 percent decrease from current levels.
Most of the county’s current flood control efforts are funded through the $2.5 billion bond program approved in 2018, which includes more than 200 infrastructure projects.
The fiscal year begins March 1.