Services differ for city, unincorporated residents

If unincorporated Harris County were a city, it would be the second largest in the state behind the city of Houston. No other county in the state has more than 100,000 residents in unincorporated areas, and Harris County has close to 1.7 million, said Frank Bruce, director of budgets and planning for Harris County.

This creates a challenge for the county, as it has to manage such a large population without the authority of a city. County officials have come to rely on several partnerships to provide services to residents.

"Unincorporated Harris County has one of the largest [populations] in the state and nation, yet there is no city [government] and the county doesn't have the authority, responsibility or capacity to provide municipal services," said Donald Lee, executive director of the Texas Conference of Urban Counties. "The county has to coordinate all these mechanisms to get services to an urban area, while a city would provide it all."

Funding services

As it stands now, about 47 percent of unincorporated Harris County sits in Commissioner Jack Cagle's Precinct 4.

"It's a huge undertaking to make sure we can take care of all those issues, put into context in an area that's growing like a teenage boy that drinks a gallon of milk everyday," Cagle said. "Our area is exploding in growth, and we have to have the infrastructure in place to get people back and forth to work to play and to provide those basic services they need."

Harris County's main forms of revenue come from property taxes, charges for services and grants from the state and federal government. State law allows counties to charge a sales tax, but there is a maximum limit of 8.25 percent has already been reached in Harris County, primarily due to the creation of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County. The organization collects one cent of sales tax, so there is no room left for the county to collect sales tax.

"It certainly would help if we could [collect sales tax], but it would involve someone else collecting less or changing the state law," Bruce said.

Regardless, Harris County has found ways to cope through annexations and a partnership with Metro. Although the county cannot collect sales tax in Cy-Fair, the City of Houston and some municipal utility districts do collect it in certain areas of Northwest Houston through limited purpose annexations.

"We annex only commercial areas," said Rupesh Koshy, annexation plan leader for the City of Houston. "It's an agreement between the utility district that manages the area and the city."

The partnership is beneficial to both the city and the MUD, because they split the sales tax collected in the area 50/50. Additionally, after an area goes through a limited purpose annexation, the City of Houston typically agrees not to annex it completely for a specific number of years.

"It's a provision that was provided by the state, and the city makes use of it," Koshy said.

The partnership with Metro and its 15 member cities and Harris County allows the municipalities to fund road projects through a share of Metro's sales tax collections.

In Cy-Fair, it has gone toward various transportation projects such as the ongoing Spring Cypress Road expansion and the Skinner Road widening. The program will continue until at least 2025, as the majority of voters in Metro's service area approved a referendum on the future of the program during the November election.

Provided services

Even though the population in Harris County is growing, the services provided to residents who live in a city differ from those of unincorporated Harris County.

In Jersey Village, half a cent on every dollar goes to fund the city's Crime Control and Prevention District, which pays for equipment purchases, prevention tips and enhance public safety throughout Jersey Village.

"It allows us to provide a level of police protection above what it would be otherwise," said Mike Castro, city manager.

Cities can also host events and spend money on efforts such as tourism, which is not typically the case in a county.

Another major service that differs in a county versus a city is provided by the MUDs that serve unincorporated Harris County. Cities are usually required to provide water and sewer services to all residents, but that is not required of a county.

"I think the slow marching trend is that urban counties are working more with each other and cities to become more efficient," Lee said.