Editor's Note: The story has been updated to reflect corrected Harris County Toll Road Authority budget.
A $2.4 billion operating budget is being proposed by Harris County officials for fiscal year 2023-24, an increase of $200 million from last year’s proposed fiscal year 2022-23 budget of $2.2 billion.
With 86 operating departments in the county, labor costs—such as salaries, retirement, payroll taxes and group health insurance—represent more than half of the county’s FY 2023-24 general fund budget.
“The No. 1 investment Harris County can make is in its people,” Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones said at the Aug. 22 meeting. “Realistically, it'd be hard to make as much progress as we want this coming year. We need to be paying our team members what they're worth and make sure we're recruiting and retaining the best talent.”
Key investments, according to the Harris County Office of Management and Budget, include the following:
- Investments in public safety
- The highest cost-of-living adjustment for civilian employees in the last five years at 7%, costing $53 million
- Adding three district criminal courts to further reduce the criminal court backlog
- Expanding the county’s public defender’s office
- Additional resources for the county’s vendor diversity program, which connects women-owned, minority-owned and disadvantaged business enterprises with contracts throughout the county
- $2.9 million increase in efforts to expand the Harris Health violence prevention program's operating hours to 24/7, also known as the Holistic Assistance Response Team Program
Digging deeper
Factors affecting the “difficult choices” in the budget process, according to the Harris County Office of Management and Budget, were:
- Inflation
- County jail costs: jail population growth causing an additional $50 million in spending
- Increased utility costs: utility, energy and supply chain disruptions
- Increased health care costs for county employees and retirees: projected at $423 million, a $29 million increase from FY 2022-23
The breakdown
The proposed budget includes an estimated $1.93 billion in tax revenues and $462 million in nontax revenue from all sources, totaling $2.4 billion.
By the numbers
The proposed Harris County Flood Control District budget is $128 million, which would provide $9.3 million due to increased costs to maintain existing infrastructure, including:
- Erosion repair
- Vegetation management
- Facilities
The increased costs, according to officials, are to provide a consistent level of support for the bond program and maintain both new and existing infrastructure.
For the Harris County Toll Road Authority, the proposed budget is $967 million, which is a $92 million increase over FY 2022-23.
Going forward
County officials said at the Aug. 22 meeting that the budget is still a “work in progress” and asked for no action on the budget until staff can “create space for budget amendments” in September.
- A Sept. 12 special meeting is planned, where county commissioners will provide their amendments to the budget.
- The final corrections will be addressed at a Sept. 19 meeting, at which the proposed FY 23-24 budget will be adopted.
- Oct. 1 is when the adopted budget will go into effect, lasting until Sept. 30, 2024.
On the other hand
If the fiscal year starts without Commissioners Court’s adoption of a budget, then Harris County would experience a “dead period” until a budget is adopted, according to the budget office.
- A dead period of longer than a week would be detrimental to county operations and services, according to budget officials.
