Lake Houston Area Prop A for/against vs Countywide

HCFCD Prop A Passes by 2% Countywide, But Fails by 13% in Lake Houston Area

11/6/24 – Voters narrowly approved Harris County Flood Control District’s (HCFCD) Proposition A, a 63% tax increase, by a little more than 2 percent on Election Day. However, Prop A failed dramatically in the underserved Lake Houston Area by almost 13 percent – for a total 15.4 percentage-point swing.

The difference underscores frustration over past promises broken, skepticism about future fairness, and doubt about whether area residents will see any benefit from the tax increase.

The Lake Houston Area, which suffered the highest flooding in the county during Harvey, has consistently been shorted by HCFCD in both capital improvement spending from the flood bond and maintenance dollars. The upper San Jacinto watershed drains an area 50% larger than Harris County through Lake Houston. But quarter after quarter, Lake Houston Area watersheds rank in the bottom half of all flood-control mitigation spending.

And when you rank watersheds by maintenance dollars per stream mile, the area ranks in the bottom third of all watersheds.

Possible Reasons Residents Voted Against

In voting against the tax increase yesterday, it’s not clear whether Lake Houston Area voters rejected the massive tax increase because they felt they would not benefit from it.

They may have also wanted to send a message to the 4:1 Democratic majority on Commissioner’s Court about being treated fairly. That majority has twice reneged on recent promises:

  • To sell the 2018 Flood Bond:
    • Commissioners said they would fix the worst flooding first.
    • Then they adopted an equity funding allocation formula that allocates flood-bond dollars by the percentage of low-to-moderate income voters in an area.
    • The formula does not consider threats to infrastructure, flood-related deaths, depth of flooding, flood risk, or damaged structures.
    • In fact, the County’s current administration has repeatedly failed to publicly release flood-risk data.
    • Since the passage of the 2018 Flood Bond, HCFCD has invested more than $200 million in the Brays Bayou watershed. Commissioner Rodney Ellis lives in that watershed. Meanwhile, HCFCD has spent a fifth of that in the San Jacinto watershed and one-thirtieth that amount in the Luce Bayou watershed.
  • To sell the 2022 Road and Parks Bond, Democratic commissioners promised that each of the four Precincts would receive at least a minimum of $220 million. After that bond passed, they allocated $157 million to the lone Republican precinct…which includes half the roads that the county maintains.

Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me…

Lake Houston Area voters were not going to be fooled a third time.

After previous bait-and-switch schemes, I personally wanted to see specific ballot language that guaranteed a fair distribution of funds from the tax. It wasn’t there.

The ballot language in HCFCD’s Prop A did not specify how, when, where, or by what standards the money would be spent. Neither did their road show.

Even though HCFCD pitched the tax as a maintenance tax, nothing in the ballot language limited expenditures to maintenance. In fact, ballot language explicitly included “operations.”

Having been fooled twice, Lake Houston Area voters were not about to be tricked a third time.

People are becoming increasingly skeptical about Harris County’s Democratic leadership.

  • The 2018 Flood Bond passed by more than 85%; the Lake Houston Area had five of the top eight precincts in the county in terms of turnout.
  • The drainage portion of the 2022 bond received a 69% majority.
  • Yesterday’s flood tax vote received only a 52% approval, but only 44% in the Lake Houston Area.

Notice a trend?

An old recipe for success in business says, “Promise what you will deliver and deliver what you promise.” Harris County’s Democratic leadership needs to start delivering what they promise and treating all people fairly…if they ever hope to pass another bond or tax increase.

How I Tallied the Vote

Using the Election Day figures which may change slightly, I tallied up the votes by precinct in the far northeastern part of the county. That included the area:

  • East of US59 to the county line and north to Montgomery County
  • Roughly north of the Greens Bayou watershed and slightly south of the Lake Houston Dam.
  • The area includes Kingwood, Humble, Atascocita, Huffman and Crosby plus unincorporated areas.

Slightly more than a hundred thousand people voted in that area (101,305) according to HarrisVotes.com and Harris County’s voting precinct map.

  • 44,189 voted FOR Prop A (43.62%)
  • 57,116 voted AGAINST (56.38%).

Thus, the Proposition lost within this area by 12.76%. But countywide, the proposition passed by 2.7%. That made the total spread 15.46%.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/6/24

2626 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 1 Day since Election Day 2024

The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.