Hegar wades into Harris County law enforcement funding row: 'Consistent budgetary support for these agencies is more important than ever'

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Glenn Hegar has accused Harris County leaders of slashing law enforcement budgets, according to Houston-based media outlets’ reports.

Citing The Associated Press (AP), Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reported that Hegar, a Republican, wrote a letter to officials in the state’s largest county decrying what he claims is the defunding of constables’ offices in the present fiscal year (FY). 

“Texans depend on law enforcement agencies every day and consistent budgetary support for these agencies is more important than ever,” the comptroller said in the letter, per the AP.

The AP reported that Hegar alleges Harris County no longer allows its constables’ offices to automatically roll over unspent funding to the next FY and the agencies have lost nearly $12 million for the present FY.

Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported that the comptroller’s office is investigating the county, whose leaders deny the defunding claims.

“This is nothing but a political stunt, just an incredible overreach of power from the state,” Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia, a former law enforcement official whose among the three Democrats on the county’s commissioners court, said, per KHOU.

According to KPRC, constables and their deputies possess the same powers as regular police officers, as well as enforce civil law.

The station additionally reported that state lawmakers approved a cadre of bills last year that bar municipalities from reducing police budgets in response to the City of Austin’s efforts to allocate law enforcement funding to other areas such as social services.

During a Thursday, Aug. 18 press conference on the county’s $150 million Safe Harris program, Harris County Lina Hidalgo went on a diatribe in response to her administration’s purported plans to defund law enforcement, Houston Daily reported.

Hidalgo, a Democrat who is seeking a second term as the county’s chief executive, used a part of the press conference to also take a jab at the woman she’s facing off with, Republican challenger Alexandra del Moral Mealer, the publication reported.

del Moral Mealer pushed back against Hidalgo by saying the incumbent allowed the criminal justice system to break under her watch.

Both women are locked in a tight race that’ll be decided in November.