Worth a detailed look.
- Click here for it.
Daniel Ramos, executive director of the Harris County Office of Management and Budget, presented the proposed budget for fiscal year 2022-23 during the Aug. 23 meeting of Commissioners Court.
The $2.24 billion operating budget is based on a county tax rate of $0.36035 per $100 of assessed value. This is lower than the voter-approval rate—the maximum rate allowed under Senate Bill 2—of $0.36054, calculated by Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett and submitted to the court before its meeting.
SB 2 requires a city or county to hold an election if it proposes collecting greater than 3.5% more revenue than in the previous year. Because the county has a greater tax base to draw from as property value assessments have risen, the total overall proposed rate for the general fund and the Harris County Flood Control District of $0.39511 is 3.7% lower than the 2021 rate of $0.41042, according to Ramos.
“I actually went back and looked,” Ramos said at the meeting. "This tax rate that we [would] adopt on the general fund will be the lowest it’s been since 1993 in Harris County.”
When the county last went through the budgeting process, the OMB prepared a planning budget for FY 2022-23 of $2.154 billion. Increased costs to the county due to inflation and high medical claims led Ramos to propose a budget $86 million larger than the planning budget.
- Click here for the proposed budget.
