Harris County defunded police, Texas comptroller says as county disputes finding

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar on Friday accused Harris County of defunding law enforcement, rekindling a feud from last fall in which Republican state officials threatened to block the county’s annual budget. At issue is a new state law passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature, Senate Bill 23, that bars large counties from cutting law enforcement spending without getting approval from voters. Hegar, responding to a fresh complaint from Harris County Constable Ted Heap, said county officials had reduced the budget for Heap’s Precinct 5 office by some $2.4 million in their most recent budget. Hegar said in a statement that the county will be barred from increasing property tax collections — plus revenue from properties added to the tax roll last year — until it resolves the discrepancy. It could also ask voters to approve the “funding reduction” in a referendum, Hegar said.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said the county would challenge Hegar’s finding in court if necessary. “We’ve seen this show before — Comptroller Hegar misconstruing the law and playing political games to make headlines,” Menefee tweeted. “His math was wrong then and it’s wrong now.” Republicans passed SB 23 in response to the nationwide movement, sparked by the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, that is aimed at diverting police funding to social services and other uses. Few large cities in Texas reined in their police budgets amid the outcry, though Austin removed some operations from its police department’s purview. The debate over law-enforcement funding in Harris County has been complicated by the county’s decision to shift its budgeting schedule to start in October instead of March. That move required a seven-month stopgap budget last year, muddling year-to-year funding comparisons. As happened last fall, Hegar and County Administrator David Berry have used different methods to project out Heap’s seven-month budget to a full year. Under Hegar’s calculations, Heap’s "annualized" budget would have been about $48.9 million over 12 months — nearly $2.3 million off from the $46.7 million figure calculated by the county.