From the Inbox:
The proposed FY2018-2019 City budget will, if adopted, continue to spend most of the drainage fees paid by Houstonians on things other than drainage. Any Council Member who votes for this budget is voting to continue to siphon off the drainage fees that Houstonians were promised would be spent to reduce flooding.
I wish I could simply lay out the facts about how the City diverts the drainage fees but the City intentionally obfuscates how the drainage fees are spent. So, this is going to require a deep dive.
In 2012, the City began collecting drainage fees pursuant to a Texas statue that authorizes cities to establish a “drainage utility.” That state statute requires that drainage fees be held in a segregated account. The City has never done this. Instead, it deposits the money into the Dedicated Drainage & Street Renewal Fund, more commonly referred to as Rebuild Houston.
The City uses two devices to obfuscate how the drainage fees are spent. First, they are commingled with other monies. The total income deposited in the Rebuild Houston fund has been running a little over $200 million. About half of that comes from drainage fees. The general mobility payments from Metro account for about a quarter of the money. The other big piece is a transfer from the General Funds which supposedly is equal to the amount that the City’s debt has declined because of the “pay-as-you-go” feature of Rebuild Houston. (More on this topic at a later date.) Of course, once these funds are all commingled it becomes much more difficult to sort out what money is being spent where.
I normally copy/paste Bill King’s posts to make it simpler for readers. But if Republicans and moderate Democrats in the City of Houston are going to have a fighting chance to beat Sylvester Turner in 2019 and start the process of rebuilding the city’s finances, they are going to have to coalesce around one leader. It is becoming clear that Bill King is the only person in the Houston political policy arena that is willing to challenge Sylvester Turner’s administration.
As such, I hope that you will click over to Bill King’s website, read this very important and well researched post about the skimming of drainage funds from the Sylvester Turner administration. While you are there, be sure and scroll to the bottom of the page and sign up to be on his mailing list. He is going to need your information if he is going to mount a true challenge to Sylvester Turner. And when you start receiving his emails, forward them to your friends and encourage them to sign up as well.
Not a paid political advertisement, just my frustrations at the Sylvester Turner administration’s shenanigans.
That whole drainage fee deal set up by Andy Ickens and Steve Costello was a financial scam from the beginning. It was sold as an $8billion proposal to fund infrastructure when in reality that $8billion just so happens to be what the city administration was forced to admit was the debt burden the city was facing with it’s pension mess as Ma Parker was leaving office to go teach public policy at Harvard.
It was billed as an 20 year project that had to be re-approved by council (not voters) so that it would generate $400million/year in available monies for infrastructure related to street and flooding improvements.
I have seen reliable estimates of it bringing in about $125million/year and very little goes to infrastructure improvements unless you consider public works employees as that very thing.
On a much happier note…HCAD finally assessed my property taxes and I got a 26% reduction! No flooding, no Harvey problems but a sweet cut in property taxes is a nice turn of events.
Praise goes to Bill King for continuing to expose the fiasco known as the Houston “drainage fee.”
The “drainage fee” initiative was troublesome from the very beginning. Many of you will remember the original proposal, which immediately drew fervent opposition, included charging other governments and churches. Also, the supposed cost to the average homeowner was called into question.
At the time I was serving as Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector. In an effort to verify the accuracy of Mayor Parker’s released estimates of the proposed drainage fee’s annual revenue and the average cost per home, I sought the assistance of HCAD. HCAD was able to provide me with sufficient information on Houston’s taxable land and improvement area, including single family homes. Using the HCAD data at the proposed rate per square foot of impermeable surface, I was able to arrive at logical estimates, of both the total drainage fee and the average cost to the homeowner. My findings were that the total drainage fee revenue and average homeowner cost would be higher than the city’s estimates.
My presentation of findings before the Mayor and City Council lead to the Mayor providing each single family home with a 1,000 square ft. exemption. And, the extreme opposition to charging other governments and churches lead to other exemptions.
With the city’s assurances the taxpayers approved the “drainage fee.” But, as they say the truth is in the results. Unfortunately, in hindsight it is almost certain the city have no attention of fulfilling its promises. As an ordinance the taxpayers have no power to revoke the fee. In retrospect the entire drainage fee fiasco has been scam of the taxpayers.
Our only hope may be a Houston taxpayer revolt; difficult but not impossible. Bill King deserves our respect and support in his efforts and willingness to challenge our current mayor.
I don’t see any evidence Bill King wants to participate in a tax revolt. He campaigned on managing the debt via bond sales didn’t he? Something like a 30 year plan to pay off debts accrued in 15 years.