Controller Chris Hollins warns Houston budget relies on ‘gimmicks’

Houston City Controller Chris Hollins is not being subtle about Mayor John Whitmire’s proposed FY2027 budget.

Currently on a “reality check” tour, Hollins said it is his sole mission to educate Houstonians about where their money will be spent in the upcoming year.

The math does not add up, the fees are not what they’re being called, the general fund balance is depleting rapidly, and the water fund is being systematically raided to paper over a structural crisis that City Hall refuses to confront, according to the city’s financial watchdog.

“It’s really disappointing the level of dishonesty, the gimmicks, the tricks, the hiding of the ball that’s involved in this proposed budget,” Hollins told the Defender. “And what’s even more disappointing about some of it is we called this stuff out last year. City council and the mayor ignored that advice then. We saw all of our predictions come true, and it cost the city well over a hundred million dollars just from those mistakes. And now we’re seeing the same gimmicks put back in.”

Hollins, who serves as the city’s independently elected chief financial officer and taxpayer watchdog, is holding a series of town halls, from District B multi-service centers and Sharpstown to a bilingual event at a west side soccer club and Axelrad, a popular bar in Midtown.

I still believe this is a serious job that demands a respectful discussion…this is not it https://t.co/84jL4c0vll

— Sallie Alcorn (@salliealcorn) May 16, 2026

He has also taken to criticizing Whitmire’s budget on social media through memes, drawing disapproval from council members, including Sallie Alcorn, the chair of the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee.

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Hollins said his office meets with the committee before public meetings.

“Over the past couple of years, we haven’t seen the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee approach these issues with a level of seriousness that they deserve,” he said. “I say that with a high degree of respect for the chair and vice chair of that committee. They also need to have the courage to, in these times, when the mayor is trying to put his thumb on them, when they might be threatened, when they might feel uncomfortable with the kind of conflict that comes with speaking truth to power.”

Where the budget stands now

Per city documents, the General Fund totals $3.16 billion, a decrease of $11.1 million from last year, largely due to the transition of Solid Waste operations out of the General Fund.

The FY27 budget ends with a fund balance of $273.8 million, or 10.5% of expenditures, well above the city’s 7.5% policy minimum.

“For years, Houston operated under constraints that put us at a disadvantage—without dedicated funding for solid waste, without standard right-of-way charges, and under dual revenue caps,” Whitmire wrote in his budget message. “This budget begins correcting that imbalance.”

During previous budget cycles, Whitmire pledged that the city would not raise taxes until “waste, fraud, and abuse” were addressed, following an Ernst & Young efficiency study. Based on the study’s recommendations, the city identified savings, imposed a hiring freeze, restructured departments, launched a voluntary retirement program, and consolidated services.

A deficit that keeps growing

Hollins called to attention the budget deficit.

The city is currently operating under what he described as the largest deficit in Houston’s history, a figure that has worsened from $174 million three months ago to $210 million.

“Their spending is so reckless, and there are so many gimmicks that come to light over time, that it keeps ticking up and up and up,” he said.

The Controller’s Office had previously projected a General Fund deficit of at least $134 million for FY2026. The administration’s own numbers showed a $107 million drawdown of the city’s general fund balance. 

Hollins noted that the savings account stood near $600 million, the highest it had ever been, as recently as the final year of the previous mayor, Sylvester Turner’s administration. Under Whitmire, those gains are being depleted fast, he said.

Looking at the FY2027 proposed budget, Hollins found that even after all of the administration’s proposed fixes, a $25 million planned deficit remains baked in.

‘Raiding’ the water fund

Hollins’s presentation addressed what he called the systematic draining of Houston’s Combined Utility System, the water and sewer fund, to plug holes in the general fund.

Two simultaneous moves are underway.

First, the Whitmire administration is proposing to move solid waste (trash pickup) into the enterprise water fund and charge taxpayers $5 or the service. Whitmire said this will generate $116 million in General Fund relief.

Second, a new “Right-of-Way fee” of 5% of on-utility gross revenues would transfer an additional $104 million from the water fund directly into the general fund.

The two new revenue mechanisms would generate roughly $220 million in combined relief, per the Whitmire administration.

Hollins is skeptical of both. The water fund currently holds $1.5 billion, but its minimum reserve requirement under city policy and existing bond covenants is $1.36 billion, leaving only $140 million of cushion.

Spending down over $200 million simultaneously obliterates that buffer, he said.

More alarming, Hollins added, is what this means for Houston’s infrastructure obligations.

The city faces a federally mandated consent decree requiring roughly $9 billion in wastewater system upgrades over the next decade. It also needs to expand the East Water Plant.

“We’re going to take that money, pay for trash, pay for police and firefighters because we continue to raise those expenses without raising the revenue to actually pay for it,” he said. “And this is not new revenue. This is stealing from ourselves, right?”

The right-of-way transfer also faces significant legal hurdles, Hollins revealed.

As of the town hall, the city did not yet have bondholders’ permission to execute the transfer. To obtain it, the city would likely need to retire and reissue more than $3 billion of its combined utility system debt, a maneuver Hollins estimates could cost taxpayers.

“We are going to pay tens of millions of dollars, if not more than $100 million, for the privilege of robbing ourselves,” he said.

Hollins: The garbage fee is not what it seems

During the town hall, Hollins also dissected the administration’s proposed $5 per household monthly solid waste fee, officially termed an “administrative fee”, which the mayor has suggested might never need to rise. Hollins called that claim a lie.

Using a game he dubbed “two lies and a truth,” he presented three versions of what officials have said about the fee, including the mayor’s claim that it may never need to go higher, a deputy’s acknowledgment that it will rise but will cap at $25, and the findings of the city’s solid waste study, which found the actual cost of solid waste service is approximately $32 per household today and will reach $46 per household by 2031.

“There is no such thing as an administrative fee,” Hollins said. “What’s being proposed is a $5 garbage fee. There is no cap on what that fee will eventually cost.”

Beyond the fee’s ceiling, Hollins argued that it is the wrong tool entirely, particularly for working families and communities like Acres Homes, as the fee applies only to the roughly 400,000 households that receive city trash service. It bypasses commercial properties and wealthier homeowners’ associations that use private haulers.

To raise the same $24 million through a small property tax adjustment, Hollins calculated, would cost the average $300,000 Houston homeowner $1.71 per month, roughly one-third of the proposed garbage fee.

“Under this garbage fee system,” he told the crowd, “regular Houstonians are paying for it at the expense of rich folks, businesses, and corporations.”

Households in wealthy neighborhoods have been receiving a $6 per month subsidy from the city since the 1980s, totaling more than $3 million in city subsidies for roughly 47,000 households.

City officials have not clarified how the $5 fee would apply to these households.

Will Whitmire take Hollins’ warnings into consideration?

When asked what reception his warnings have received from the Whitmire administration, Hollins said, “None.”

“Instead of dealing with the realities that we’re facing, the mayor brushes off any critiques as politics,” he said. “The truth is not politics. Math is not politics. There’s not a claim I’ve made or a call out that I’ve done where we don’t have the facts to back it up…it’s not the way that local government should work.”

Hollins confirmed he expects to certify the budget, a legal determination about whether the numbers are sufficient to cover expenses, not a “moral endorsement”, but clarified where he stands.

Residents weigh in

Residents who attended the town hall echoed the concern.

Jovon Tyler, a District B resident, noted that while 60% of the general fund goes to fire and public safety, the things most people talk about on the street are libraries, after-school programs, pools, and infrastructure that barely register in the budget.

Anita Bell, operations manager at the Acres Homes Community Advocacy Group, talked about the role of civic engagement in budget discussions.

“We come out, we vote, we do the work. So it’s time for the city to listen to us,” Bell said.

The public hearing on the FY2027 budget is scheduled for June 3rd at City Hall.