HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Following a recent corruption scandal centered on misusing $8.5 million taxpayer dollars, Houston Mayor John Whitmire seeks to expand the city’s ongoing audit.
In June, three people affiliated with a TIRZ in Midtown were arrested for reportedly not handling the funds correctly which were going to be allocated for affordable housing.
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TIRZ, also known as a Tax Income Reinvestment Zone, is a city property tax zone that allows independent boards to control a portion of city property taxes for neighborhood improvement projects. The city has more than 180 such zones, and the mayor’s proposed audit expansion would extend to each.
“There’s a real question about how the money is being spent and if it is being spent in the way that’s in the best interest of taxpayers in the City of Houston,” political scientist Dr. Mark Jones of Rice University said.
The call to expand the audit comes as the city scrounges for cash amid a projected $260 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year.
The deficit prompted the mayor and his council colleagues to authorize a $580 million Ernst & Young audit of city services, which is currently concluding.
“The Ernst & Young initial report is showing that we’ve got like 40% of the city’s directors supervising three or four employees. Now, you want to ask people to raise the tax rate when we’ve got 40 percent of our directors supervising three people? They don’t understand that,” said Whitmire.
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If the council authorizes the mayor’s proposed audit expansion on Wednesday, the audit’s total price tag will increase to approximately $1.35 million. The additional $770,000 will be pulled from the TIRZ and funded with property tax revenue.
Wednesday’s council is also expected to approve Whitmire’s proposal to keep the city’s property tax rate as is. Whitmire has repeatedly said he will not raise taxes until he can ensure voters that corruption and waste is stamped out. Jones told ABC13 he believes the mayor is using the Ernst & Young audit to build a case to raise taxes next year.
“He’ll likely go to voters and ask them for a greater increase with the argument that he’s done everything possible to make the city efficient and reduce waste and corruption but that he still needs money,” Jones said.
