The Harris County Office of Management and Budget accounted for reduced resources and lost department budget increases due to the county having to adopt a no-new revenue tax rate last year when constructing this coming fiscal year’s budget proposal.
County officials set the Fiscal Year 2024 proposal from the county’s General Fund at $2.395 billion, $267 million more than the current budget, to restore the lost funding. An additional $128 million operating budget will go toward the Harris County Flood Control District.
These county dollars distribute additional funding to jails, law enforcement, flood mitigation, infrastructure projects and other county expenditures through the end of September 2024 if approved by Harris County Commissioners Court.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor, said this year’s budget is a lot less controversial due to the change in commissioners – Democrats now hold a supermajority – and Harris County having a steady stream of money coming in.
“There’s something in here for everybody to like; it keeps the tax rate near where it was at, increases the funding for the flood control district, and puts more money toward some key judicial needs,” Rottinghaus said. “So, there’s a lot of things here for everybody to like, which is likely a good starting point for a smooth process moving forward.”
The almost $2.4 billion in funds will be split with about $1.5 billion going to justice and safety measures, such as funding three new criminal courts, the first-year expansion of the public defender’s office and increasing the holistic assistance response teams that answer non-emergent, non-violent 911 calls.
Rottinghaus said one of the proposal’s more “politically-charged” elements is the Harris County District Attorney’s budget – which has been challenged publicly and privately. However, a consensus seems to have been reached as the attorney’s office’s fund will increase from $99.3 million to $114.5 million.
County employees will also reap the financial benefits as $57 million will go to them to keep up with cost-of-living increases.
Smaller expenses are also a part of the whole, as the county plans to use $3.1 million to expand Houston’s 311 Service Helpline Number and $1.7 million to maintain the distribution levels at Harris County libraries.
The county’s current economic stability comes from its firm tax base – which creates a significant chunk of the revenue used for the budget – coupled with leftover funds from the American Rescue Plan Act that provided relief to state and local governments during COVID-19.
The residual ARPA funds must be obligated to a department, project or other related entity by the end of December 2024 if Harris County wants to use them before the expiration date.
Rottinghaus said these federal dollars are usually used in budgets to match funds or allocated to the jail. In the proposal, the county outlines about $26 million of the residual dollars, contributing to a larger amount of $37.3 million to send inmates out-of-state to serve prison sentences due to overcrowding issues in the facility.
Safety and the prison system were two central topics within the budget proposal, with 63 percent of the funds committed to justice and safety and 44 percent to law enforcement.
“I mean, the county jail is a facility in the region where money has to be allocated to provide solutions for people who need that assistance,” Rottinghaus said. “This an area where people all agree that the county needs to spend money, so I think it’s something all of them (county officials) agreed on too.”
The tax assessor-collector is yet to release the proposed tax rate; however, offices from the Office of Budget and Management said the rate adopted to support the revenue will be lower than last year’s assumed tax rate. The county has been decreasing tax rates steadily since 2019.
The proposed budget does face some financial challenges amid state-mandated revenue caps, state-mandated minimum spending on law enforcement, growing healthcare costs, the population boom, inflation and resolving the backlog in criminal cases – which the county is planning to tackle with its proposed investments.
Additionally, access to the ARPA surplus means the county can support the planned spending now, but it may need help to withstand economic support in the future.
“This will be the last budget cycle where there’s significant federal money involved, so that has to be thought through and carefully marshaled for this budget and planning for the next budgets,” Rottinghaus said.
The Office of Management and Budget held town halls before and directly after releasing the proposal to get feedback from the public. The proposal will be presented at the next Commissioners Court meeting on Tuesday, August 22.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is currently away from her position seeking treatment for clinical depression. The absences of Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey and former Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle affected budget proceedings last year as a quorum was not present.
Rottinghaus said that Hidalgo’s situation is different and will likely have little to no effect on the process as the other commissioners are present, and the proposal seems solid.
The commissioners and budget office staff will have time to make any tweaks or adjustments to the proposal, and the final budget will go into effect once approved on October 1.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
