The Feature
Harris County adopted a 67.147 cent tax rate. Operations went up 5.6 percent and debt service went up 23.2 percent.
Commissioners adopted the 2026 rate 3-1 on September 17. The county’s own OMB table splits the 7.6 percent into two lines that did not move together.
Latest from the desk
Houston posted the Proposition A ballot language. It bans a warrant HPD says it stopped serving, and it carries a 15 second rule nobody has reported
Houston posted the Proposition A ballot language three days before early voting. The charter text defines the banned warrants by a 15 second wait and requires a five year marijuana enforcement audit.
Harris County will run 589 Election Day vote centers, 193 fewer than in 2022. Early voting opens Monday at 75 locations.
An ABC News analysis counts 589 Election Day vote centers for November 3, against 782 in 2022. The clerk’s own map lists 75 early voting sites opening Monday. No county official has explained the
Harris County’s new flood director has 28 projects and $868 million on two deadlines. His first interview put no number on how much is spent.
Marcus Stuckett took over the Flood Control District in June. The deadlines he is working to are the extended ones the state called its last, and the district still has not published a spend rate
Five people are charged over a $3 million Houston car theft ring. The complaints allege $300,000, and the couple at the center posted bond in three days.
Houston police value the luxury car theft ring at more than $3 million. The October 9 complaints allege theft of $300,000 or more, and Harris County District Clerk records show the couple out of custody by October 12.
ICE says it was hunting Jose Mendoza-Cervantes on October 10. A Dallas woman says that is her father, and that he died in 2017.
ICE named Jose Mendoza-Cervantes as the target of its October 10 Harris County operation. A Dallas woman says the bulletin photo is her father, who died in 2017. The agent who struck Miguel Parra Hernandez is on leave.
Houston funded a Tanner Road drainage project that began before 2014. The sewer half of Wednesday’s $31.1 million runs on a 15 year federal clock.
Council approved about $31.1 million of road, drainage and sewer work. The consent decree behind two of the three items covers $2 billion over 15 years, and the clock started in April 2021.
County News
Harris County will run 589 Election Day vote centers, 193 fewer than in 2022. Early voting opens Monday at 75 locations.
An ABC News analysis counts 589 Election Day vote centers for November 3, against 782 in 2022. The clerk’s own map lists 75 early voting sites opening Monday. No county official has explained the
Harris County’s new flood director has 28 projects and $868 million on two deadlines. His first interview put no number on how much is spent.
Marcus Stuckett took over the Flood Control District in June. The deadlines he is working to are the extended ones the state called its last, and the district still has not published a spend rate
Harris County handed its plate reader rules to a Sheriff’s Office working group. The report is due in February 2027 and the cameras stay on.
Commissioners voted Thursday to create an oversight group led by the Sheriff’s Office, reporting back in February 2027. The county’s own report says the plate reader inventory is still not complete.
City News
Houston posted the Proposition A ballot language. It bans a warrant HPD says it stopped serving, and it carries a 15 second rule nobody has reported
Houston posted the Proposition A ballot language three days before early voting. The charter text defines the banned warrants by a 15 second wait and requires a five year marijuana enforcement audit.
Houston funded a Tanner Road drainage project that began before 2014. The sewer half of Wednesday’s $31.1 million runs on a 15 year federal clock.
Council approved about $31.1 million of road, drainage and sewer work. The consent decree behind two of the three items covers $2 billion over 15 years, and the clock started in April 2021.
Houston’s budget gap has been $209 million, $25 million and $88 million this year. The rate stayed at 51.9190 cents.
About $63 million of the $88 million is property tax revenue the city no longer expects. The same finance director reported a $52.6 million miss a year ago under the same flat rate.
Crime and Courts
Five people are charged over a $3 million Houston car theft ring. The complaints allege $300,000, and the couple at the center posted bond in three days.
Houston police value the luxury car theft ring at more than $3 million. The October 9 complaints allege theft of $300,000 or more, and Harris County District Clerk records show the couple out of custody by October 12.
ICE says it was hunting Jose Mendoza-Cervantes on October 10. A Dallas woman says that is her father, and that he died in 2017.
ICE named Jose Mendoza-Cervantes as the target of its October 10 Harris County operation. A Dallas woman says the bulletin photo is her father, who died in 2017. The agent who struck Miguel Parra Hernandez is on leave.
One hundred days after the ICE shooting, there is no grand jury date. The witness the DA calls critical is in federal custody.
Harris County funded the district attorney’s investigation with $2.5 million on day 30. Nobody is charged, no agent is named, and the victim’s brother is still in ICE detention.
Editorial
Editorial: a county asking the state for more time should not be asking voters for more money yet
An extended Harvey deadline, 25 of 181 bond projects paused, and 200 drainage projects with no funding. Any candidate who wants a new bond should account for the 2018 one first.
Editorial: Harris County spent $12.5 million to make a list of 200 drainage projects it cannot pay for
A state grant paid to find 200 drainage project areas worth $200 million to $4 billion. No money has been identified to build any of them.
Editorial: the 12 percent question
Harris County wants 12 percent more money in a year when the tax base grew less than 1 percent. The county has an answer. It is not a good enough one.
Get the Harris County briefing
Twice a day we round up what Commissioners Court, City Council, and the courts actually did, with links to the primary sources so you can check us.