John Whitmire pledged Wednesday not to raise the city’s property tax rate, but more money is still coming out of our pockets.

Whitmire’s Shell Game: Your Property Tax Is Only One Way Houston Takes Your Money

Now I know why the water leak on my street has not been fixed. Houston apparently does not want to waste money fixing something it has plenty of — water. It has been leaking for over a year; it has been reported. The last time I called to report it, the little red dot on the 311 map disappeared; problem solved.

What Houston is doing with its water and sewer money is not funny. Mayor John Whitmire and City Council are shifting hundreds of millions of dollars around while telling taxpayers that they are protecting them from higher property taxes. Property taxes, however, are only one way City Hall reaches into your pocket.

Houston’s own FY2027 budget says moving Solid Waste into the Combined Utility System will provide $116 million in General Fund relief. The same budget creates a new 5% right-of-way charge against the water and wastewater utility, producing another $104 million for the General Fund. Together, the city proudly calls that approximately $220 million in “structural improvement.” (City of Houston)

Houston FY2027 Budget in Brief

Think about what that means. Houston is moving the cost of collecting your garbage out of the General Fund and into the utility system, then charging residents a new $5-a-month garbage fee. At the same time, Houston is charging its own water and sewer utility about $104 million a year for the privilege of having pipes underneath city streets and rights-of-way.

City Hall describes that second charge as comparable to what private utilities such as CenterPoint, AT&T, and Comcast pay. There is one important difference: Houston owns the water utility. It is essentially moving money from one city pocket into another city pocket, while the people filling those pockets are the same Houston residents paying their water bills. (City of Houston)

And there is plenty of money in that water-and-sewer pocket. The city says the Combined Utility System currently has a $1.3 billion fund balance and about 550 days of cash reserves. Houston’s own cash-reserve policy calls for 300 days, while its ordinance requires only 60 days. (City of Houston)

Houston FY2027 Budget Overview and Five-Year Plan

Perhaps that large reserve made the utility system an attractive place to find money. But the Controller’s numbers show why Houstonians should pay attention to what happens next.

For FY2027, Controller Chris Hollins projects the Combined Utility System will collect about $2.107 billion but spend about $2.311 billion, including debt service. That means expenses are projected to exceed revenues by approximately $204 million in one year, reducing the system’s ending fund balance. (City of Houston)

Houston Controller: Trends for FY2027

That does not mean Houston’s water system is about to go broke. It does mean that City Hall is deliberately putting substantially more expense on a utility system that the Controller already projects will spend $204 million more than it takes in this year. If that becomes the normal way to balance Houston’s budget, eventually there are only three choices: drain reserves, cut utility spending, or charge customers more.

Houstonians have already been charged more. The city’s financial reports show that a typical single-family household using 7,000 gallons a month paid about $157.90 for water and sewer in FY2024. By FY2025, that same example had risen to $165.64 a month, and another scheduled rate increase took effect in April 2026. (City of Houston)

Those increases were originally adopted before Whitmire became mayor. But Whitmire and the City Council were not helpless spectators. Council has the power to change city ordinances and rates. Instead of stopping the increases, they allowed them to continue while finding new ways to use the utility system to relieve pressure on the General Fund.

Then comes the new garbage fee: another $5 a month, or $60 a year. It sounds small compared with $104 million or $116 million, which may be exactly why ordinary fees are politically useful. Five dollars here, thirty dollars there, and another few dollars on the water bill do not make headlines like a property-tax increase, but residents still have to earn the money before Houston can take it.

Permits and city services have been creeping upward too. Houston’s 2026 citywide fee schedule includes a $33.56 administrative fee on many permits and licenses. The minimum building permit is $91.06, a city-engineer plan review starts with a $134.28 administrative charge plus $96.67 per plan sheet, and cutting a city street can cost $167.84 or $234.99, plus the administrative fee. (Cohweb Houston)

Houston Citywide Fee Schedule

Even getting in trouble became more expensive. Beginning January 1, 2026, Houston increased the municipal-court warrant fee on qualifying cases from $50 to $75, with other fees potentially added on top of that. (City of Houston)

Houston Municipal Court Fee Information

This is why concentrating only on Houston’s property-tax rate can be misleading. I am old enough and have enough exemptions that property taxes are not what take much money out of my pocket. I still pay for water, sewer, garbage, sales taxes, and the other charges Houston imposes. Millions of other Houstonians do too.

Whitmire can say Houston did not raise the property-tax rate while the city collects more money somewhere else. Move $116 million of garbage costs into the utility system. Charge the utility another $104 million for using city property. Add $5 to the monthly garbage bill. Keep increasing water and sewer rates and let hundreds of smaller fees keep climbing.

That looks less like solving Houston’s financial problem than moving the cups around on the table.

Meanwhile, there is still a water leak on my street.

Maybe City Hall will get around to fixing it — after it finishes figuring out how much more money it can get out of the water system.