Harris County’s sole Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey has rolled out a new campaign called “Wasted Potential” to draw attention to just how much taxpayer money Harris County is spending on new programs and departments, largely driven by the Democrat supermajority.
The commissioners just recently raised taxes more than 15 percent.
Through his campaign, Ramsey plans to regularly draw attention to different spending priorities in the county, the first of which was the County Administrator’s office. The office was created in 2021 to offload some of the administrative functions of the duly elected Court to an appointed administrator.
According to Ramsey, the most recent budget allocated $19 million to the office to cover 73 employees. He said the average position is budgeted around $260,000 with salary and benefits, while the actual county administrator makes $418,417.
To drive the point home, Ramsey said that for the cost of the county administrator’s salary alone, Harris County could hire seven additional patrol deputies. The overall department budget of $25 million is equal to 274 deputies, which he said “could be used for jail detention or safer neighborhoods.”
The County Administrator’s office is just one of a dozen new programs or departments created by Democrat County Judge Lina Hidalgo and the three Democrat commissioners, with Ramsey often being the sole vote against.
The purpose of the campaign is to inform Harris County residents about where their money is going and allow them to determine if that aligns with their priorities.
After appraisals and the county’s tax rate increase were faceted in, an analysis found that the average Harris County homeowner saw a 25 percent increase in just their county property taxes last year.
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