Zeroing out the raise saves ESD 9 $3 million. The gap is $8.1 million.

Harris County Emergency Services District 9 spent its September 10 budget workshop arguing over a 4.2 percent employee raise. Wiping the raise out entirely closes about 37 percent of the district’s $8.1 million gap.

Why it matters

ESD 9 funds the Cy-Fair Fire Department across a large piece of northwest Harris County, and the board is scheduled to adopt a tax rate September 24. If the compensation line is where the debate stays, residents get a rate increase, a smaller raise, and most of the same shortfall.

By the numbers

Projected FY 2026-27 revenue: $109.6 million. Projected expenditures: $117.8 million. Gap: $8.1 million.
Proposed tax rate: $0.045 per $100 of valuation. No-new-revenue rate: $0.038548. The proposal is 16.7 percent above it.
The three raise options presented September 10, measured against the proposed 4.2 percent: 3.2 percent saves $730,119. 2.2 percent saves $1.5 million. No raise saves $3 million.
Against the $8.1 million gap, those options close 9 percent, 18 percent and 37 percent.
New full-time positions in the budget: 49, for Stations 15 and 17.
The proposed rate sits $0.006452 per $100 above no-new-revenue, or $25.81 a year on $400,000 of taxable value. That is about $2.15 a month.

What the coverage buried

Community Impact prints the three raise options and their savings figures, and prints the $8.1 million shortfall, and never divides one into the other. Do the division and the debate changes shape. The largest compensation cut available, taking the raise to zero, covers about 37 percent of the gap. The trim Commissioner Jaime Martinez floated as a way to avoid raising taxes or spending reserves, 4.2 percent down to 3.2 percent, covers about 9 percent.

The story also reports 49 new full-time positions for two fire stations without pricing any of them. Staffing for those stations is the reason the district gives for the shortfall, which makes 49 salaries the largest new commitment in the budget. The headcount is in the story. The cost is not.

The other side

Commissioner Cameron Dickey said the increase would cost homeowners “less than two coffees a month,” and that checks out. The gap between the proposed rate and no-new-revenue is $0.006452 per $100, which on $400,000 of taxable value is $25.81 a year, or about $2.15 a month. It is fair to say so plainly.

Commissioner Naressa MacKinnon’s argument holds up too. Two new fire stations in a growing part of the county are a growth cost, not evidence of mismanagement, and payroll for a station starts before the doors open. The three raise options are also internally consistent, each point of raise costing the district roughly $730,000, which suggests staff did the work rather than producing round numbers for a board meeting.

The answer is that a $2.15-a-month framing works on the increase and not on the decision. What the board is actually deciding is whether to run an $8.1 million gap into reserves, and no version of the compensation vote settles that question in either direction.

What to watch

September 17, 5:30 p.m. The next budget workshop.
September 24. Scheduled adoption of the budget and the tax rate.
Whether the adopted rate lands at $0.045 or lower, and whether any commissioner dissents, as two did when the current budget was adopted in September 2025.
Whether the district prices the 49 new positions publicly before the adoption vote.
Whether the district says whether the $117.8 million in expenditures includes capital spending. Until it does, this year and last cannot be compared and the word shortfall cannot be sized.

Bottom line

The raise is the visible number and the small one. ESD 9 is proposing a rate 16.7 percent above no-new-revenue, adding 49 positions, and still running $8.1 million short, and the compensation debate cannot reach most of that. The board has two weeks to say what covers the rest.