As a result, the county will be forced to adopt the no-new-revenue rate—which caps the county’s property tax-generated revenue to the same amount as the previous year plus revenue from new construction and minus any increases in debt—of $0.34373 per $100 valuation for the county’s general fund, and is set to ratify the rates on Nov. 2.
This leaves law enforcement budgets smaller than they would have been with a budget based on the proposed tax rates: the district attorney, the eight constable precincts and the sheriff’s office patrol miss out on a combined $30.15 million.
“The Cagle and Ramsey law enforcement cuts are now in effect,” County Judge Lina Hidalgo said at the end of the meeting. “That means cuts to patrol officers and fewer salary increases and fewer frontline police officers.”
Tax rate debate
Several commissioners had proposed additional funding for law enforcement during the six-week long tax-rate standoff. Ramsey asked for $20 million for 200 patrol officers; Cagle suggested $56 million for 200 new officers and salary increases for current officers; and Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia—offering up the same tax rate for the county’s general fund as Cagle—said his proposal included an additional 2.5% pay increase for law enforcement and $20 million for 200 deputy positions.
But with Ramsey and Cagle absent from a discussion-only special meeting of Commissioners Court held Oct. 17, during which time an alternate set of tax rates could have been proposed in time for the Oct. 25 meeting, no such additions for law enforcement could be made.
The overall tax rate, which includes the no-new-revenue rates for the Harris County Flood Control District, the Port of Houston Authority and Harris Health System, is $0.53058 per $100 valuation. An owner of a home appraised at $300,000 eligible for the 20% homestead exemption will pay $1,273 a year under this rate, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Under the proposed overall rate of $0.57251 per $100 valuation, that same homeowner would have paid $101 more a year, and the county would have brought in $236 million more in revenue.
In an Oct. 25 statement, Cagle said it was “a very good day for the taxpayers of Harris County.”
“We can return to a fiscally sound system of providing the basic services that taxpayers expect—public safety, flood protection, parks and constituent service,” he said.
Cagle had said previously there would need to be a compelling reason to raise taxes on the public, adding that if taxpayers have had to tighten their belts, the government should as well. Jason Spencer, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, took a different view.
“I don’t think people are expecting belt-tightening when it comes to core services like public safety, right?” Spencer told Community Impact. “I don’t think there was an expectation that among our general public, that there would be a cut to law enforcement that we’ve seen with this budget.”
District attorney and constable “rollover”
Instead of appearing at the morning meeting—during which time the tax rates for the county’s general fund covering law enforcement departments would have been up for a vote—District Attorney Kim Ogg and a slew of constables spoke during the second Oct. 25 meeting on Ogg’s posted agenda item to discuss “properly funding” her and the constables’ offices, but did not include the sheriff’s office.
“This proposal to cut $5 million from our budget is basically cutting from somebody who can’t be cut any more,” Ogg said during the meeting. “Would you have me end sex trafficking prosecution? Capital murder of police officer prosecution? Where would you have us cut $5 million?”
In her statement, Ogg was referring to a Sept. 15 letter from the budget office that was sent to all county departments in which the “cuts” corresponded to the difference between the budget proposed by the budget office and the budget adopted by commissioners on Sept. 13.
After Ogg left the courtroom, she told members of the media that her office was not privy to the “political wrangling” over the budget.
“This is law enforcement coming together—apolitically, nonpartisan—to say we must remain funded, ... and we’re here to talk to the public because ultimately it’s the public who will decide,” Ogg said.
Ogg also claimed her budget had been siphoned away over the last four years, and bemoaned the shift away from the rollover policy that used to allow county departments to keep unspent funds from one fiscal year into the next. Speaking alongside numerous members of various constables’ offices, Constable Precinct 8 Capt. Steve Hastings said rollover was routinely used to offset unexpected expenses incurred throughout the year.
For the April 5 meeting of Commissioners Court, Ogg put an item on the agenda saying $4.9 million in rollover funds left over from fiscal year 2020-21 should have been used to fund 16 new positions approved by the court between July and October 2020.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to transition away from the rollover policy in March 2021. At the time, Cagle voted against the shift, saying it would amount to “taking [departments’] piggy banks away,” but agreed with County Administrator David Berry that rollover should not be used for salaries.
“That becomes a recurring expense—you’re never caught up,” Cagle said during the March 9, 2021 meeting. “If you need an employee and you’re using your rollover to pay for employees, it never goes away.”
Data provided by the budget office shows every year for the past four years, the District Attorney’s Office’s budget has increased. For fiscal year 2018-19, the DA’s office received $82.9 million, and the adopted budget for fiscal year 2022-23 allotted $99.34 million.
Sheriff’s office impacts
The sheriff’s office did not put an item on the agenda to discuss funding, and out of over 130 speakers signed up for public comment for the second Oct. 25 meeting, none were listed as affiliated with the sheriff’s office.
In a letter addressed to Berry and the members of Commissioners Court on Sept. 19, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the difference in his office’s budget between the adopted and proposed would jeopardize an upcoming basic peace officer cadet class used to train about 60 new deputies. Spencer said his office has had to postpone the class.
With commissioners set to officially ratify the no-new-revenue rates Nov. 2, Spencer said his office will have to go through the budget to identify where it will get the best return on investment.
“There are not going to be any easy decisions. We don’t think there’s any real fat in the budget to trim, so any cuts are going to hurt,” Spencer said. “I can’t think of any county department that is going to be able to offer the same level of service in the coming year as they did in the past year.”
