State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, the Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Local Government Committee, told NewsRadio 740 KTRH that combined budgets at the five largest counties in Texas have gone from $8.7 billion in 2016 to $14.6 billion this year, a rise of about 67 percent. Harris County is one of the five, along with Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar and Travis.
Bettencourt told the station the increases are running about 2 percent a year faster than inflation and population growth combined, and he raised spending caps as a possible remedy while noting that Colorado’s version produced arguments over how spending gets counted.
The figures and the characterization are the senator’s. He has long pushed for tighter limits on local government spending, no county has responded publicly to the totals, and this site has not independently verified them.
The timing is local. Harris County Commissioners Court is scheduled to take its final vote on a proposed 7.6 percent property tax rate on Wednesday, September 17.
