Officials in Texas’ Harris County, home to Houston and more than 5 million residents, approved the highest property tax rate in modern history to help close a budget gap exceeding $180 million, a move likely to intensify affordability concerns for local homeowners. With a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, commissioners in Harris County — the third-largest county in the country after Los Angeles County, California, and Cook County, Illinois — agreed to move forward a proposed increase of 7.6 percent for the upcoming fiscal year. That would mean residents would pay 67 cents for every $100 in taxable property value, up from the current 62 cents.
The unprecedented increase has been proposed as the county faces a more than $180 million fiscal deficit which officials say has been driven largely by law enforcement pay raises, rising healthcare costs, and fees paid to court-appointed attorneys representing defendants who cannot afford a lawyer. These are the same challenges that many local governments across the nation are facing: rising public-safety costs, healthcare costs, and mandates that are growing faster than revenue. For Harris County, one of the largest local governments in America, these pressures are even more dramatic than most.
Continue with our infrastructure expansion plans, our technology expansion, and upgrade,” Harris Health President and CEO Dr. Esmaeil Porsa told commissioners, as reported by Fox 26. For residents, the budget shortfall is nothing new: the county has reported one for four consecutive years since 2023.
But the property tax hike, if given final approval, will be something they have not had to deal with before — and a high price to pay to balance the county’s books. If finalized, the 7.6 percent property tax hike approved by commissioners would add $198 more in the coming year to what the average homeowner in the county currently pays, according to estimates by the Harris County Office of Management and Budget. It would generate a projected $15 million surplus for the county.
The 3-2 vote that allowed the progress of the proposed tax increase struck down an amendment introduced by Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey, a Republican, that would have left the rate unchanged. Democratic County Judge Lina Hidalgo was the only other member of the court, together with Ramsey, who voted in support of leaving the rate unchanged. But the programs that I’ve been proud to support over my seven and a half years in office, I have never, never funded a program when I knew there was no money for it.
I think that’s what’s truly fiscally responsible,” Hidalgo said in a statement reported by the Houston Chronicle: Commissioner Adrian Garcia, a Democrat, had proposed a lower rate increase, but ultimately voted in support of the 67-cent rate on Tuesday. Newsweek contacted County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Commissioners Adrian Garcia, Tom Ramsey, Lesley Briones and Rodney Ellis for comment by email on Wednesday morning. The Harris County vote comes despite years of efforts by Texas lawmakers to rein in property taxes, something which several Republican-led states across the country have been trying to do since the end of the pandemic, with mixed results.
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