KPRC 2 asked both Harris County judge candidates the same tax question. Neither answer carried a number.

Both candidates for Harris County judge answered the same property tax question this week, and neither answer contained a number. KPRC 2 published its accounts of the two ENOUGH sit-downs Monday afternoon. Orlando Sanchez said he would lower the rate in his first budget and did not say by how much. Letitia Plummer declined to commit to lowering it at all.

Why it matters

The county adopted a combined rate of 67.147 cents per $100 on September 17, and the bills it produces are already going out. Whoever wins on November 3 inherits the rate, not the promise.

A voter choosing between these two has their positions. Neither gave a figure to hold them to next spring.

By the numbers

67.147 cents per $100 of taxable value, the combined rate adopted September 17. ABC13 reports the move as $0.6241 to $0.6715. The rate covers the county, the Flood Control District, the Port and the hospital district.
$188 more a year on an average homestead appraised at about $400,000, and $142 on a $300,000 home, per ABC13.
3-1. Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey voted no. ABC13 reported that County Judge Lina Hidalgo walked out during the vote. The county record shows her abstaining.
5.6 percent and 23.2 percent. The operating half of that rate rose 5.6 percent and the debt service half rose 23.2 percent, from the county’s own rate table, as this desk reported September 20.
Five votes. Commissioners Court is the county judge and four commissioners. Lowering a rate takes three of them.
90 seconds per answer. Both candidates got the same questions, including viewer questions, from anchor Stephania Jimenez.

Sanchez, the Republican nominee, named commissioners’ communications and staffing as what he would cut: the billboards, the monthly mailers, and “the 75 people they just hired in one precinct.” He attached no savings figure to any of it and named no precinct. Plummer, the Democratic nominee, called a reversal difficult and pointed to efficiencies instead, naming employee health insurance costs and shared services with Houston. On cuts she was flat: “cutting programs, I will tell you right now, is something that I’m not willing to do.”

What the coverage buried

KPRC’s two write-ups do something most forum coverage does not. They put identical questions to both candidates, print both answers at length, and disclose the 90-second clock.

What neither write-up carries is the adopted rate. The number both candidates are talking around, 67.147 cents, was set on September 17 by a court whose membership does not change on November 3 except for the judge’s seat. A reader finishes either piece without it.

The second gap is the arithmetic of the office. A promise to lower the rate in a first budget needs three votes the county judge does not control. Neither write-up says so.

The third is the billboards. This desk could not price them in September either. The county has never published what its 13 voter registration billboards cost, so a candidate can campaign on cutting them and nobody can say what that saves.

The other side

Ninety seconds is not enough time for a rate schedule, and it is unfair to grade a candidate on arithmetic the format did not allow.

The answer is that the clock is the candidate’s to manage. “I will lower the rate” fits in nine seconds. “I will lower it by half a cent” fits in eleven. Neither chose to spend the time that way, and both had the same amount of it.

What to watch

October 15, 9 a.m., 1001 Preston. The last regular Commissioners Court meeting before the election. A plate reader report and 44 Flood Control District items are on it.
October 19. Early voting opens. November 3 is election day.
Next spring, the first budget cycle either winner would run, when a promise made in 90 seconds meets four commissioners.

Bottom line

Two candidates, the same questions, the same clock, and two answers a voter cannot check a year from now. Sanchez’s is checkable in direction and not in size. Plummer’s is at least candid about the difficulty. Neither told a Harris County homeowner what their own bill would do.