The overview
Originally, Houston would have been required to pay $100 million toward future drainage and street projects by the end of June, which would’ve led to the budget deficit ballooning to $330 million, up from $230 million, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
However, under the new deal, the mayor’s Chief of Staff Chris Newport said Houston will fund these projects over time. This new deal allows Houston to give $16 million to the drainage fund this fiscal year and $48 million the following year. Newport said Houston should be able to pay the full amount by 2028.
“This will take a giant step forward in addressing our shortfall and, in future years, putting hundreds of millions of dollars into repairing our infrastructure,” Whitmire said.
The backstory
The 2019 lawsuit centers around a city charter amendment that required Houston to allocate 11.8 cents per $100 collected in property taxes toward street and drainage projects. However, engineers and Houston residents Bob Jones and Allen Watson sued former Mayor Sylvester Turner's administration in 2019, alleging the city had not been allocating the funds and had underfunded infrastructure projects by almost $50 million.
The state's 14th Court of Appeals sided with Jones and Allen in April 2024, but Houston appealed to the Texas Supreme Court in July. That appeal was ultimately denied Jan. 31.
This appeal denial led to questions on how the city could pay for the $100 million by the end of the fiscal year, with Controller Chris Hollins calling it a "gut punch" in February.
What they’re saying
Watson said this deal will allow for more opportunities to fix roads and drainage.
“We all knew the financial constraints that were in front of you and this council,” Watson said during the April 16 council meeting. “We were willing to sit down and talk about it. We’re both Houstonians, and we love this city.”
Council member Edward Pollard said while this deal is good news, he said the next challenge is getting these infrastructure projects done. He questioned whether the city has enough working manpower to complete them in a timely manner.
“Just because you have more money sitting in a bucket doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to get these projects done,” Pollard said. “You have to have the workers to be able to go out and do it. We have projects that have been sitting in our portals for years that are ready to go. But there’s just not the capacity.”
These funds will go into the Dedicated Drainage and Street Renewal Fund that the city can use to spend specifically on future drainage and street projects. Specific projects are unknown at this point.
