Harris County budget hearings July 13–16: $330M certificates of obligation intent

Harris County’s FY 2026–2027 budget hearings begin Monday, July 13, 2026 and run through Thursday, July 16. During the hearing week, county departments are scheduled to present budget priorities as part of the county’s budgeting process. Separately, the county has published a “notice of intention” describing an additional public-finance step: certificates of obligation with an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $330,000,000.

What to expect during the FY 2026–2027 budget hearings

Harris County published a “Fiscal Year 2026–2027 Budget Hearings Schedule” covering the full week of July 13–16, 2026. The calendar lists each day as 10:00 a.m. “until complete,” and cautions that the duration and sequence of individual presentations may change.

The calendar is designed to help residents track which parts of county government are presenting. It lists departments and the official or department head scheduled to present during the hearing week.

For example, the calendar includes presentations listed for the Office of County Administration (Erica Lee Carter), the Office of Management and Budget (Daniel Ramos), the Tax Assessor-Collector (Annette Ramirez), the Sheriff (Ed Gonzalez), Public Health Services (Leah Barton), and Engineering (Milton Rahman), along with many other departments and court-related offices.

How residents can find the scheduled presenters

Two places are most useful:

• The published FY 2026–2027 Budget Hearings calendar PDF, which lists the departments and the scheduled official/department head for the hearing week.
• The Harris County Commissioners Court agenda portal, which is where the county posts meeting materials and notices. If you’re trying to match a budget hearing presentation to related posted documents, the portal is typically where you’ll find what’s been uploaded around Commissioners Court business.

Practical takeaway: if you’re a taxpayer, commuter, renter, or business owner following potential service changes, spending priorities, or infrastructure needs, the hearing schedule is your “who’s presenting when” roadmap for the week.

The separate “certificates of obligation” notice: what it says (and what it doesn’t)

Alongside the budget-hearings scheduling, Harris County posted a separate legal notice titled “Notice of Intention to Issue Certificates of Obligation – Harris County 2026.” This document describes an intent to seek authority related to certificates of obligation with an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $330,000,000.

Just as important for readers: the notice is explicitly an intention describing a framework for potential authorization. It is not the same thing as final, fully settled issuance terms or a confirmed, final list of projects being funded dollar-for-dollar through certificates.

Repayment structure described in the notice

The notice says the certificates would be “secured by and payable from”:

• Receipt of an annual ad valorem tax levied within the limits prescribed by law on all taxable property within the county, and
• A limited pledge of certain net revenues from the county’s parking facilities, pursuant to Texas Government Code Chapter 1473—in an amount not to exceed $10,000.

Why this matters locally: the notice’s repayment sources connect to two reader concerns—county tax financing and the use of certain parking-facility net revenues. But actual budget impacts still depend on what Commissioners Court ultimately adopts during the broader budget and financing process.

Project categories listed in the certificates notice

The notice describes the certificates as intended to help pay contractual obligations associated with construction and related activities for county-owned facilities and other allowable public improvements. It lists these project categories:

• (i) Construction and improvement of designated county infrastructure, including streets, roads, highways, and other related facilities.
• (ii) Construction, equipping, and improvements to county judicial facilities, including a new county judicial facility located at 1019 Congress St., judicial facility renovations at 201 Caroline St. in Houston, and other judicial-facility improvements and renovations in Houston.
• (iii) Constructing, renovating, improving, and equipping a county-owned building at 100 Pasadena Blvd. in Pasadena, for a public health clinic and related parking facility.
• (iv) Purchasing, installing, and equipping backup generators for county emergency shelters and other critical county facilities, including upgrading electrical systems and related improvements, plus purchase/installation of power generation and battery storage systems to support grid stability and community resilience and to provide backup power during outages.
• (v) Upgrades, repairs, replacement, optimization, and equipping at multiple county-owned buildings and facilities, including upgrading and modernizing the county’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, and upgrades/improvements to the County Radio Network, dispatch centers, and telecommunications towers, plus related information technology systems, applications, hardware and software.
• (vi) Purchase of county fleet vehicles, radios, and personnel equipment for authorized county purposes (including law enforcement).
• (vii) Repairs and improvements at NRG Park, including lighting, signage, fencing, gates, security bollards, ticket lanes, pedestals, event barriers, sidewalks, and perimeter security upgrades/improvements—plus cooling tower-related repairs and improvements to NRG Park central plants.
• (viii) Certain other costs related and incidental to the above, including payment of contractual obligations for professional services and the issuance costs of the certificates.

What to watch next after July 13–16

Think of this as two tracks running in parallel:

• Track 1: July 13–16 budget hearings—residents can follow which county departments present during the hearing week and what priorities they put forward.
• Track 2: certificates-of-obligation follow-up—the notice signals an intent to authorize certificates within a specified principal cap and a stated repayment structure. After the hearings, residents should watch for later Commissioners Court agenda items and posted materials that connect the intent framework to implementation steps.

If you’re trying to connect these documents to day-to-day impacts—public health facilities, judicial facilities, emergency power resilience, dispatch/technology systems, transportation infrastructure, and NRG Park facility upgrades—these are the records to track during the week and in follow-up postings afterward.

Sources

• Harris County FY 2026–2027 Budget Hearings Calendar (PDF)

Look for updates to this story

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