Hegar: Harris County constable's complaint 'provides evidence of a reduction of funding for a law enforcement agency'

Texas’ top revenue estimator said on Friday that Harris County is slashing police budgets despite local leaders’ assertions they weren’t, per a press release.

State Comptroller of Public Accounts Glenn Hegar said in the release that his office looked into a complaint Harris County Precinct 5 Constable Ted Heap made with Gov. Greg Abbott's Criminal Justice Division. 

Per Hegar, state law requires the comptroller to determine whether a county ran afoul of Local Government Code Section 120.002(a) by executing cuts without presenting a proposal to the voters.

At the center of Heap’s complaint is the Harris County fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget in which the county purportedly cut the Precinct 5 Constable’s Office allocation by nearly $2.4 million from the previous budget. 

The comptroller’s office said Heap’s agency received $46,582,350 for the current FY, a dip from the $48,949,795 earmarked in the FY 2022 budget. 

“After careful review, I found that the complaint provides evidence of a reduction of funding for a law enforcement agency when comparing the adopted budget for the current fiscal year to the adopted budget for the preceding fiscal year,” Hegar, a Republican, said in the release.

He added the root cause of the budget debate late last year – which saw the Harris County Commissioners Court’s two Republican members, Tom Ramsey and R. Jack Cagle, skip a number of meetings in protest of their Democratic colleagues’ proposal – “remains unresolved” though the court’s efforts at the time are now expected to save county taxpayers close to a quarter of a billion dollars. 

“Judge Lina Hidalgo and the Harris County Commissioners Court are defunding the police,” Hegar said, according to his office. 

Ramsey, who represents Precinct 3 on the horseshoe, was reelected to a second term in the November races while Cagle lost his seat to Democratic challenger Lesley Briones.

Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis issued a statement critical of the comptroller’s findings, Houston FOX affiliate KRIV reported. 

“While the obstructionists in Austin play political games, Harris County leaders are working every day to make communities safer,” Ellis, a Democrat, said, per his office. “People here on the ground know that we are turning the tide on a national crime wave with robust investments in public safety.” 

Hidalgo said in a statement issued by her office that she “looks forward” to taking the matter up in court, KRIV reported.