In front of a crowd of more than 250 business and community leaders, the Harris and Montgomery county judges led a discussion Jan. 22 at a North Houston Association meeting regarding growth in the region.

Harris County

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said one of the largest issues, specifically in Precinct 4, is that much of the rapidly-growing area has not been incorporated into the city of Houston, and officials have no ordinance-making authority. In 1963, the city of Houston placed the entire county and some surrounding areas into its extraterritorial jurisdiction, anticipating municipal utility districts would be developed and later annexed.

"I don't think the annexation is going to happen unless something really surprises me," Emmett said. "Of the 4.5 million people who live in Harris County, about 1.7 million live in unincorporated Harris County. But it gets a little bit worse. By the year 2018, more people will live in unincorporated Harris County than live in the city of Houston."

As the county continues to grow, there is a significant demand for more social services funding to better serve residents, Emmett said. Harris County is battling an issue with suburban poverty and a lack of federal funding from agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that tend to focus on cities rather than counties, he said.

With the regentrification of the city of Houston, more people are moving into the suburbs in the surrounding areas and are in need of indigent health care through the taxpayer-funded Harris Health System, Emmett said.

"We're going to have to deal with health care," Emmett said. "We have to find a way to do that, and more and more people who need indigent health care do not live in the inner city—they live out in the suburbs. If the county is going to be responsible for dealing with these issues, we're going to have to have a way to finance it."

Regarding mobility, Emmett said Harris County must find ways to establish more efficient freight infrastructure to help reduce the number of cars on the roadways. Emmett said he has placed an emphasis on the construction of an I-69 bypass south of Houston to ease future freight travel from the Port of Houston, Freeport and Galveston.

"We need to be the gateway of North America [for freight travel]," Emmett said. "If [a ship has] 5,000 containers on it and half are going to go to Dallas, that would [equate to] 2,500 trucks [carrying the same amount of freight] on I-45 or we put it on a train [instead]. We've got to find a way to help the railroads carry that freight inland."

Montgomery County

Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal said creating partnerships between city and county leaders is a priority in carrying out regional projects. In comparison to the Greater Houston area, Doyal said Dallas officials have historically found more efficient ways to form coalitions and convey funding needs to the Legislature to receive a greater amount of money for projects.

"Commissioner [Jack] Cagle and I met about three years ago when they told us [Hwy.] 249 will never get done—it'll never happen," Doyal said. "We got that project put together and got it funded [with the help of other local leaders]. You'll be driving on Commissioner Cagle's first section of [Hwy.] 249 in March or April [in Tomball]. That's amazing for a project that had been talked about for 50 years."

As the sixth-fastest growing county in the nation, transportation has become a top issue in the area. Doyal announced the county is planning to place a $300–$500 million mobility bond referendum on the May ballot to fund a number of improvements in the Magnolia, The Woodlands and Conroe areas.

In addition, Doyal said the county's tax abatement program has been successful in bringing businesses to the community and attracting the attention of multimillion-dollar large-scale corporations. As the county continues to grow, Doyal said officials must work closely with the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District and the San Jacinto River Authority to meet the groundwater needs of the county.

"That's going to be critical moving forward—making sure we have plenty of opportunities, resources and places to go to make sure the water needs can be met," Doyal said. "Just like with roads—without water we will not continue to grow."

Doyal said when dividing total budget numbers by population statistics in 2014, each person spends $11,336 annually to fund the federal government, $7,237 each year to finance state government operations and $524 annually to support Montgomery County services.

At the county level, Doyal said taxpayer dollars are stretched farther to receive more value for services, including the seventh largest sheriff's department in the state, five justices of the peace, seven district courts, animal control, the local libraries and Lone Star Executive Airport.

"As inefficient at times as it can be, local government is the best expenditure of your dollar if you think about the services that are provided for the dollars that you pay," Doyal said.