The two Harris County commissioners who skipped Tuesday’s meeting to approve a tax rate and proposed budget stuck by their decision which forced the county to adopt a no new revenue rate.
“I was representing the 1.2 million people that are citizens in Precinct 3, and it was important that they had a voice and I felt like the best way to communicate what their needs were was not to be there because their budget needs were not represented in that budget,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey said Wednesday.
With no quorum, the county was forced to adopt a no new revenue rate, meaning the county will bring in the same amount of property tax revenue as last year.
“The taxpayers right now are under too much of a burden. We did not need to increase the taxes on the public,” said Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Tuesday the end result of the no-show by the Republican commissioners is a smaller budget with no room for her planned increases in public safety dollars.
The county says millions of proposed increases will now be cut from the budget including a loss of $5,000,000 for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and a loss of $40,000,000 for the Harris County Sheriff’s Department for patrol, administration, and detention.
“I don’t accept that they could have easily found other places to find the funds to add extra resources that we do need to give to law enforcement,” Cagle said.
In a tweet Tuesday, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez wrote:
“This significant reduction will derail our proactive efforts to fight crime, increase response times, and further strain jail operations”
“It is crucial that our criminal-justice system be properly funded - the right number of deputies, courthouse staff, and prosecutors - and it is up to our elected leaders to set funding priorities,” said Dane Schiller, spokesperson for the Harris County D. A.’s office.
The county commission will take up the tax rate again on Sept. 27.