HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — The state comptroller is facing a lawsuit from the Harris County Commissioner's Court after he accused the county of violating state law by reducing funding for Constable Precinct 5.
Judge Lina Hidalgo and the Democrats on the commissioner’s court are trying to halt his order preventing Harris County from setting a new tax rate for next year.
Comptroller Glenn Hegar slammed the lawsuit calling it a waste of taxpayer dollars. Democrats on the commission are moving ahead to take the fight to court as police salaries and other county services could be impacted by a no-new revenue tax rate.
The lawsuit is in response to a determination by Hegar that the county "defunded" Constable Precinct 5.
“These are unfounded claims on our budget and not only that, the unfounded claims threaten to destabilize our ability to set an appropriate budget,” Hidalgo said.
She and other Democrats on the Commissioners Court enabled County Attorney Christian D. Menefee to file a lawsuit to stop Hegar’s order.
“Unfortunately, this isn't just about a simple error in calculation or in accounting, it’s part of a larger threat to democracy,” Hidalgo said.
Hegar responded saying he is confident in his office’s calculations that Precinct 5’s budget was reduced from $48 million to $46 million in violation of the state’s anti-defunding police law.
“We disagree with how Harris County made their calculations, but we have been open to discussions this entire time,” Hegar said. “We’ve pushed for local solutions.”
Solutions, the comptroller said, could be solved by county leaders meeting and reaching an agreement with constables.
“Pick up the phone, reach out to the constables, sit at a table and discuss this,” Hegar said.
County Democratic leaders said they’ll prove in court that they didn’t reduce police funding.
“This is the chief financial officer for the state of Texas,” Menefee said. “He should be expected to be able to correctly do basic math and we’ve seen that either for political reasons or whatever it may be, he’s unable to.”
The vote for the lawsuit was along party lines, 4 to 1, with Tom Ramsey, the lone Republican voting no.
“The comptroller’s math is very clear... we should be spending money on law enforcement, not lawsuits," Ramsey said in a brief statement.