What's next for Harris County? | What's Your Point?

Affordability is a real thing, ladies and gentlemen, and folks are hurting. And so my commitment with these next four years is to ensure that we make a significant impact on the issue of affordability. Freshly re-elected Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia making a big promise there. Commissioner, I've got a suggestion for you. How about repealing the 41% increase in my property tax that you just voted for? Now that deeper caps and heftier voter approval standards are likely off the table in Austin, I think we all know that ain't happening. Garcia's win, part of a clean Democratic sweep in Harris County, including election of a new judge, Letitia Plummer. If you voted because you are working multiple jobs and still struggling to afford child care, I will be your county judge. If you voted for full accountability to taxpayers, I will be your county judge. And if you voted for my opponent, I will be your county judge, too. Panel judge-elect Plummer hinting there at new financial assistance funding for low-income residents. As you are probably aware, she's on the record favoring a guaranteed basic income. Bill, the issue here is going to be, will a county judge candidate Plummer, who opposed the tax increase... But who also says, I'd like to institute some new social programs. Will the money be there? Yeah, I think the problem at the county level is going to be a financial one. Their budget's already strapped. They had to do this gigantic increase this year just to balance the budget with all the new spending that they added to it. It looks like the tax roll is going to actually come in less than what they thought it was going to. So they're going to end up with a deficit anyway. And that's not going to change going forward. Thank you. We'll see in mid-December, we'll get the new population numbers. But Harris County will have a very small increase in population, might actually lose population for the first time since the 1980s. So Harris County is in a very precarious situation. In the last 10 years, 300,000 people have moved out of Harris County, mostly headed to the suburbs, but some other places. And so somehow they're going to have to figure out how to right this ship in Harris County. Okay, one minute. Shit. Well, to quote Margaret Thatcher, the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. So if you're going to do guaranteed basic income, how are you going to pay for it? And I appreciate that Letitia Plummer said she wouldn't have supported this tax increase, but she hasn't really shown us what she would cut to pay for the program she would like to implement. And do you increase that burden on middle class people? They just can't afford to keep paying more and more and more taxes and they don't get as much of a So, you know, how do you balance that out? I don't know how the math is going to work here. All right, we have somebody who worked closely with Letitia Plummer here to respond. She's an extremely pragmatic person. Elections are your opportunity to give the electorate your priorities. And I think in that clip you saw who her priorities are and what her priorities are going to be. It's not on Letitia. There are five people there that have to lead this county. And so it's gonna be a collection of different voices, but she's told you working people are her concern. Those are the people that they're gonna prioritize. I'm not saying they're gonna be cuts, I'm not saying they're gonna be new tax increases, but whatever happens, Letitia Plummer has committed to you that working families are gonna be at the center of what she's thinking about when she goes to work. Am I being unfair to hit Adrian talking about affordability being his biggest priority right after he hammered people with a 41% increase in their property tax? Of course, he was the only guy that voted for the tax increase. There was four commissioners on there except for Ramsey. Thank you, Nancy. Actually, Lena didn't vote for it. Oh, and Lena also, I'm saying, I believe. And also, so I'm glad Letitia Plummer won, and she's going to hold the line on property taxing. Her focus is on affordability. And the issue of cutting, it's too early to tell. You got to get me with the budget director. You got to kill, you know, you got to do a hiring freeze. Look at the overspending on some of these folks that just hired. You know, I'm talking about someone that makes half a million dollars. Those are the ones you start cutting first. Up next, with Republican leadership soon to depart the state capitol, Houston Mayor John Whitmire makes a move further separating HPD from ICE.