Since 2023 Harris County’s Budget Has Grown by 9.8% Annually

In an op-ed that appeared in the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday, Commissioner Adrian Garcia claimed that the County’s budget in 2018 was $2.8 billion and that the increase being proposed to $3.1 billion was substantially below inflation for that period. It was a blatant misrepresentation intended to mislead Harris County residents.

The budgeted expenses for 2018 were a little under $1.9 billion. However, believe it or not, in those days the County was running a surplus. In 2018, that surplus was over $800 million. So, the budget figure Garcia used in his op-ed was the budgeted expenses plus the surplus that was carried forward to the following year. 

This is a screenshot showing the summary of the 2018 budget, which can be found at this link (emphasis added).

So, here are the facts about the Harris County general fund budget since 2018.

From 2018 through 2023, the compound annual growth rate for the general fund budget was 2.6%, well below the sum of inflation and population growth for the period of 4.4%. However, since 2023, the General Fund budget has grown by 9.8% annually, which is more than three times the annual growth in population and inflation of 3.2%. 

Certainly, an argument can be made that prior to 2023, the Commissioners’ Court was not addressing critical needs in the County. During that time, I advocated that they should be spending money to overhaul the county jail and that the State should have expanded Medicaid. But regardless of our various policy views, we should all be dealing with the same set of facts – not lies like the County spent $800 million more in 2018 than it actually did. Nor should we be exaggerating the County population growth or falsely blaming the County's current spending spree on unidentified “unfunded mandates.”

In 2024, the County’s Budget Director warned Commissioners that they are increasing spending faster than revenue was rising. Instead of heeding that warning, the Commissioners continue to increase spending at historic rates, which, not surprisingly, has forced them to adopt an historic property tax increase.