Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo held her annual State of the County address, hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership. The speech, delivered a week after her appearance at the Democratic National Convention, took much of the same tone and focused heavily on disaster recovery and preparedness.
Hidalgo started by requesting the Harris County Commissioner Court’s unanimous support in asking voters to increase the flood control district tax this upcoming November, which would generate about $113 million in revenue and cost average homeowners about $60 per year.
Current flood control district funding leaves the county on a flood maintenance schedule of 270 years. The tax increase, according to Hidalgo, would allow them to shift to a maintenance schedule of 67 years. The increase would be for maintaining the bayous and other channels that often back up with debris and lead to neighborhood flooding.
“We have lowered the tax rate for the first time during each of the years that I’ve been in office, so that is new, that is something that did not used to happen before I took office,” she said. “We’ve also expanded the homestead exemption as much as we can,” she added before asking the crowd for support in increasing the flood control district tax.
She also struck a different tone on oil and gas than in years past and differed from her Democrat colleagues.
“We can’t live really soon in a future without oil, without plastics, etcetera, but the world is moving forward and whether you look at it from a climate change standpoint or whether you look at it from the job standpoint, we want to make sure in Harris County that we’re being proactive and we’re being very open and honest and thoughtful about the conversations that we have here,” Hidalgo said. She added that the county would spend more to invest in solar power.
On crime, she touted law enforcement pay raises and an 11 percent reduction in crime, although Hidalgo said it tracks a national trend. She also highlighted VIPER, the violent person task force, which has helped bring 4,000 “dangerous criminals who have been tagged as being violent” into custody.
She concluded her address by discussing her mental health challenges last year, which led her to seek inpatient treatment at a facility in Ohio, and her subsequent push to add $10 million for school counselors to address mental health. Much of the speech was spent listing what she considered her post-pandemic accomplishments, many of which were funded through a one-time relief aid.
As the county enters its budget cycle, it is evaluating which programs it can afford to continue once federal funding runs dry. As the county is running a deficit, commissioners are proposing an 8 percent property tax hike to close the gap.
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