Kathy Whitmire must have known John Whitmire well; she chose to endorse Sheila Jackson-Lee:
Houston has had two Mayor Whitmires. One was a CPA who spent years fighting unbudgeted spending, employee unions, and City Hall excess while keeping the books balanced through an economic collapse. The other inherited a structural deficit, then committed Houston taxpayers to enormous new police and firefighter obligations before looking for new fees and accounting maneuvers to cover the bill.
The first was Kathy Whitmire, John Whitmire’s former sister-in-law. She had been married to his brother Jim until his death in 1976. Kathy became Houston controller before becoming mayor, and as controller she developed a reputation for challenging unbudgeted spending and questioning contracts and bond expenditures. She came to City Hall knowing that numbers on a ledger eventually have to add up.
Then Houston elected her mayor in 1981.
She could hardly have taken office at a worse time. The oil boom collapsed. Jobs disappeared. Banks failed. Property values fell. City revenues shrank. In 1986, facing a projected $72 million budget shortfall, Whitmire imposed a hiring freeze except for critical positions. Her answer to having less money was not complicated: stop adding expenses you cannot afford.
She also fought with police and fire unions. During her administration, disputes over compensation, benefits, civil service and management authority became political battles. She was not afraid to tell public-safety employees that City Hall could not simply write every check they wanted.
The unions could complain.
The voters kept electing her.
Kathy Whitmire won the mayor’s office in 1981 and then won again in 1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989. In 1987, she received 73.5% of the vote. A Houston mayor could fight powerful employee groups, insist on fiscal restraint, and still win nearly three-fourths of the electorate.
Apparently voters could distinguish between supporting police and firefighters and handing their unions a blank check.
Now meet the other Whitmire.
John Whitmire took office saying Houston had a serious structural deficit. He was right. Houston’s financial problems did not begin with him, and no fair account should pretend otherwise.
But inheriting a hole is one thing.
Climbing into it with a shovel is another.
One of Whitmire’s first major acts was settling Houston’s eight-year fight with the firefighters union. The agreement was worth roughly $1.5 billion. It included $650 million in back pay, which Houston did not have sitting in a bank account. The city financed that portion with taxpayer-backed bonds to be repaid over 25 to 30 years. The new contract also included at least 24% in raises over five years, with the possibility of more if additional revenue became available. (Houston Chronicle)
The firefighters had legitimate grievances. They had worked for years without a new contract, and the dispute had dragged through courts and elections. Settling it had value.
But taxpayers still have to pay the settlement.
And they will be paying long after John Whitmire leaves City Hall.
Then came the police.
Whitmire negotiated a five-year police contract giving Houston officers raises totaling 36.5%. The agreement was another major long-term payroll commitment at the same time City Hall was warning that its finances were structurally unsustainable. (Houston Chronicle)
Public employees deserve fair salaries. Police officers deserve fair salaries. Firefighters deserve fair salaries.
There is another group the mayor represents.
The people paying those salaries.
That is where Kathy Whitmire’s example becomes uncomfortable.
She understood that being mayor sometimes means telling people you respect, people whose work matters, and people whose political support might be useful: No. We cannot afford everything you want.
John Whitmire settled first.
Then City Hall started looking for money.
His administration openly acknowledged that a garbage fee and even a property-tax increase were among the possibilities for paying for the firefighter deal. City Attorney Arturo Michel said at the time that “everything is on the table.” (Houston Chronicle)
Two years later, the garbage fee arrived.
Houston’s FY2027 budget imposed a new $5 monthly trash fee, expected to bring in about $24 million annually. But the larger maneuver was moving the roughly $117 million Solid Waste operation out of the general fund and into Houston Public Works’ Combined Utility System. (Houston Chronicle)
Then came another $104 million.
Houston imposed a 5% right-of-way rental fee on its water and wastewater utility, generating about $104 million in new general-fund revenue. Together, the trash restructuring and utility fee produce approximately $220 million in what the administration calls “structural improvement.” (City of Houston)
That is a wonderfully antiseptic phrase.
Structural improvement.
Money is moved from the utility system into the general fund. Trash expenses are moved into the utility system. Residents receive a new monthly garbage charge. City Hall calls the arrangement reform.
The taxpayer still pays.
Whitmire now promises not to raise Houston’s property-tax rate. He made that pledge again this week while defending his fiscal record. (Houston Chronicle)
Fine.
But property taxes are only one pocket.
The water bill comes from another pocket.
The garbage fee comes from another.
Permits and other city charges come from another.
A politician can announce that he did not take money from your left pocket while his hand is still in your right one.
The firefighter settlement makes that argument much harder for Whitmire to escape because it was not an inherited expense. He chose the settlement. He chose its size. He chose to finance $650 million of it over decades. He then chose an enormous police compensation package.
And now Houston needs new sources of money.
Kathy Whitmire also made hard choices that carried costs. During the brutal 1980s downturn, infrastructure work was postponed, and later Mayor Bob Lanier successfully criticized the city for having deferred too much. Fiscal restraint can create future bills just as overspending can.
But there is still a fundamental difference.
Kathy Whitmire faced collapsing revenues and tried to make city expenses fit the money available.
John Whitmire faced a structural deficit and dramatically increased some of the city’s largest recurring obligations.
His own FY2027 budget says the General Fund is “not sustainable” without structural reform. It simultaneously funds the police and fire agreements, five police cadet classes, eleven fire cadet classes, and additional overtime. (City of Houston)
That is the problem in one document.
City Hall says Houston cannot continue on its present financial path.
City Hall also keeps making that path more expensive.
Kathy Whitmire was not beloved by every police officer, firefighter, or city employee. She did not need to be. She understood that the mayor does not work for one union, one department, or one political constituency.
The mayor works for Houston.
And the mayor has to know when the answer is no.
Houston once had a Whitmire who understood a rule that every family living on a paycheck understands:
You cannot permanently spend more money than you have.
The other Whitmire apparently thinks you can.
You just have to give the bill a different name.