Judge Lina Hidalgo says Harris County’s $200M deficit puts libraries, hurricane readiness, and health services at risk

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — The clock is ticking for Harris County to finalize its budget for the next fiscal year, and commissioners are set to adopt a new proposed budget in the next week, which must be in place by the end of October.

Judge Lina Hidalgo spent her State of the County address on Friday, discussing the state of the budget.

“Now we’re $200 million in a deficit, and so what do you do?” Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo said after attending budget hearings this week, critical county services could be at risk.

“The 9th is where your library is not going to have enough staffing, the 9th is where we’re not going to have enough money on our rainy-day fund in the middle of hurricane season, the 9th is where we are going to impact the budget of our public health department for basic services.”

The county’s budget director also acknowledged an over $200 million deficit last month.

Hidalgo said part of the reason the county is in a hole is because of the pay raises approved by commissioners for law enforcement.

“There was a unilateral decision, no chance for discussion to invest $100 million and some pay raises that we cannot afford as a county, and so I think that’s why we should let the voters decide,” Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo told ABC13 she supports a raise, but not this way.

“I support the pay raise, as long as we can afford it. I support it going to the voters. I think I abstained on that vote. I cannot support putting the county (into a) $200 million deficit, it’s irresponsible,” Hidalgo said.

However, Hidalgo has clashed with commissioners during the budget process, most notably, after they rejected her penny tax proposal for early childhood education last month. Commissioners Adrian Garcia and Lesley Briones have said that critical services will not be impacted.

“Library hours, as I mentioned earlier, are not being cut,” Garcia said.

“To me, raising taxes is a last, last resort. We have to put in the work to see what we can do to be more strategic and more effective with what we have,” Briones said.

But Hidalgo said she believes there’s no adequate solution on the table right now.

“There has been no proposal from my colleagues that has cuts worth $200. They just don’t have that proposal,” Hidalgo said.

After Tuesday’s meeting, the final vote is scheduled for September 18.

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