Harris County Judge candidates thoughts on budget crisis

Now here in Harris County, voters are deciding who will lead the nation's third largest county for the next four years. One of the biggest challenges facing the next county judge will be the county's budget and how to keep property taxes from going up again. Jade Floria is live with a look at how the two candidates say they would address the county's finances. Good morning to you, Jade. Yeah, good morning y'all, with Harris County facing a more than $180 million budget deficit, both Republican Orlando Sanchez and Democrat Letitia Plummer say that they oppose raising property taxes to close that budget gap, but they said they each have different ideas when it comes to where to cut back and where to get some of the extra spending money from. Both candidates agree that the county made a mistake by using temporary federal COVID relief funds to help pay for programs that later became permanent. Plummer also points to rising health insurance costs for county employees, as well as recent pay increases for sheriffs and constables. She says the county can save money through competitive bidding and shared services with the city of Houston. She also wants to address the cost of housing inmates outside of the county jail. We're spending $15 million every single year outsourcing a little bit over 1,100 inmates. Does that make logical sense, right? When it costs $20,000 annually per inmate, how can we make sure that these folks that are there that have mental health challenges at a rate of 80%, how do we help them on the front end? Sanchez also wants to lower the cost of running the county jail. He advocates for fully funding law enforcement and speeding up violent criminal trials to move convicted inmates out of the county system faster. Sanchez also wants to cut what he calls unnecessary spending, including county positions and salaries that he says are too expensive. One Eliminate the positions that are not necessary in Harris County. We know that the county is spending half a billion, that's $500 million of taxpayer money that are not constitutionally mandated. Then we will do a review of the salaries of Harris County, which are obviously not in alignment, not even with the private sector. Now looking ahead to these property taxes, if elected, Plummer says that she would examine appraisal revenue to help keep those property taxes low, while Sanchez promises a four-year tax freeze if two other county commissioners can join him and making sure are voting against another tax increase. Reporting from Cypress, Jade Flurry, Fox 26 News. Jade, live at the Jurgens Hall community center.