Law enforcement appear en masse at court due to budget concerns; Ramsey, Cagle absent a third time OCT. 11
OCT. 14
OCT. 17
OCT. 18
Two meetings are held to vote on the four tax rates in sets of two; Ramsey and Cagle are absent for both. OCT. 25
Commissioners vote 4-0 to ratify the four no-new- revenue rates, with Judge Lina Hidalgo absent. NOV. 2
Cagle is defeated in the election by Democratic opponent Lesley Briones. With a 4-1 majority next year, Ramsey alone could not prevent a tax rate vote. NOV. 8
Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia announces a tax rate plan to generate $66.8 million less revenue than the proposed rates.
Ramsey and Cagle skip a
Ramsey and Cagle skip the fourth voting opportunity to adopt tax rates.
discussion-only meeting. A vote could not have been held.
previous full fiscal year 2021-22, drop- ping to $0.148 with the no-new-rev- enue rate compared to the proposed rate of $0.173. The rate is less than that of other large Texas counties, such as $0.224 for Dallas County, according to an Oct. 17 presentation from Porsa. In a stopgap measure, commission- ers unanimously approved $45 million in American Rescue Plan Act fund- ing Nov. 15, which has to be approved again at a second meeting after a plan for the money has been presented. ARPA funding, though, is a one- time injection of cash: the difference in revenue between the proposed rate and no-new-revenue rate will have long-term effects, Porsa said Sept. 13. “[It’s] not just a loss this year—next year, even if you went to the voter-ap- proval rate, we’re still not going to be able to fill ... the hole that this is going to leave,” Porsa said. As for the flood control district,
quarterly projections on expenditures and revenues this January. At that point, we’ll make recommendations to Commissioners Court on which departments, if any, to restore funding to,” Ramos said. The court’s composition and a shift- ing political environment could have an effect on those discussions. Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said commissioners court positions had historically been politi- cal in name only; from FY 2007-08 to FY 2018-19, a 4-1 Republican majority held the tax rate at around $0.63 per $100 valuation. “We haven’t actually seen partisan politics come into play until the last couple of years where national politics has seeped into every pore of local pol- itics,” Rottinghaus said. Once Democrats gained the major- ity in 2019, they attempted to raise the
Executive Director Tina Petersen said in a statement the no-new-revenue rate will impact the district’s mainte- nance programs, including a reduc- tion in planned maintenance cycles for vegetation management, property clearing and other preventive mainte- nance services. She said the district will prioritize active projects for com- pletion, but will need to defer some projects to future fiscal years. “The [district] is committed to deliv- ering projects and providing flood infrastructure services to the residents and businesses of Harris County, even with the recent budget reductions,” Petersen said. Road map for 2023 Going into the new year, Ramos said it will be up to the commissioners to decide how to amend budgets and con- duct transfers to meet needs. “[The budget office] will be doing
county’s tax rate, leading to a quorum break by Cagle and then-Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack and pre- venting the increase. The tax rate has been reduced each year since. While the county’s budget growth is limited by Senate Bill 2—requiring the county to hold an election if it proposes exceeding 3.5% more reve- nue than the previous fiscal year—as the court’s sole Republican in 2023, Ramsey cannot prevent the adoption of a higher tax rate next year. “Democrats and Republicans are going to have different ideas about how to spend money and what the budget should look like,” Rottinghaus said. “That’s going to create political fric- tion, and Democrats will win. ... [They] have the votes.”
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BELLAIRE - MEYERLAND - WEST UNIVERSITY EDITION • DECEMBER 2022
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