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Appendix B. Method and principal sources

All dollar figures were taken from primary documents where one exists and cross-checked against news reports; where only a news report exists, the report is named. Budget-book tables were extracted from the PDFs with pdftotext and parsed into CSV files (data/); every parsed total was checked against the printed total. Charts were generated from data/summary_metrics.json and the CSVs with the scripts in scripts/. The full list of sources with URLs, retrieval dates and local file names is in REFERENCES.md.

  • Harris County OMB, FY2027 Proposed Budget Vol. I, versions 1 (8/17/2026), 2 (9/2/2026, "as of 9/8") and 3 (9/17/2026, adoption day, 531 pp., including the Auditor's FY27 FEAR at pp. 141-453 and the FY26 and NEW salary plans at pp. 454-531); Vol. II Department Detail v2 (1,212 pp.); FY27 Budget and Tax Rate Information (Tax Code 26.18 posting); FY27 Budget Town Hall slides (June 2026). budget.harriscountytx.gov

  • Harris County OMB, FY2026 Adopted Budget Vol. I and Vol. II; FY2025 and FY2024 adopted budget workbooks.

  • Harris County Auditor: Monthly Financial Reports for Sept. 30, 2025, March 31, 2026 and June 30, 2026; Annual Comprehensive Financial Report FY ended Sept. 30, 2025; Final Estimates of Available Resources FY2025 and FY2026. auditor.harriscountytx.gov

  • Harris County Tax Office: 2026 Tax Rate Calculation Worksheets (Form 50-856) for Harris County, Flood Control District, Port of Houston Authority and Hospital District. hctax.net

  • Commissioners Court agenda, special meeting Aug. 17, 2026; Harris County Five-Year Financial Plan and Opportunities (BCG for OMB, June 4, 2024).

  • Rice University Baker Institute, "Harris County Faces Growing Budgetary Headwinds" (King, Beebe, Diamond, Rice; July 9, 2026).

  • News and commentary: Houston Public Media, Community Impact, KPRC 2, Fox 26, ABC13, Spectrum News, Houston Chronicle (via Yahoo syndication where paywalled), The Texan, Texas Scorecard, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, ReduceFlooding.com, KTRH, Houston Style Magazine (county release), Judge Hidalgo's newsletter.

Limits. FY26 is not closed (it ends Sept. 30, 2026); its "actual" figures are the Auditor's nine-month actuals and full-year projection. The Auditor's FY27 Final Estimate of Available Resources (dated Sept. 17, 2026: beginning cash $387.0M + revenue $2,964.3M = $3,351.4M) is bound into Vol. I v3 (PDF pp. 141-453) but had not been posted separately, and no "Adopted" edition of Vol. I had been posted by Sept. 21, 2026. Volume II figures are department-level change-table lines; $3.7M of the 81 county departments' lines are on funds other than the General Fund. Two news sites (KHOU, Houston Chronicle) block automated retrieval; their reporting is cited through syndicated copies or other outlets.

Revision history. Revision 1 (Sept. 21, 2026) was reviewed independently on Sept. 23, 2026 (independent_review_2026-09-23/). Revision 2 (Sept. 23) adopts the review's corrections: (1) Volume II change items are now read from department-level tables only; revision 1 also summed the program-level tables beneath them, overstating group health ($156.5M, now $81.5M in the 81 General Fund departments), law-enforcement staffing ($44.7M, now $30.8M) and pay equity (gross distributions were presented without their central offsets); Table 2b is new. (2) Appendix A now carries all 81 departments from the Auditor's June 2026 table (three were dropped by a parsing defect, understating adjusted budgets by $22.9M and spending plus encumbrances by $16.4M). (3) The working-capital decline is no longer described as planned consumption of reserves; the certified-resources versus OMB-forecast comparison ($115.1M) replaces it. (4) The $128M tax-rate effect is attributed to OMB's May scenarios; the $35.8M difference inside the statutory tax posting is disclosed; "highest since 2018" is corrected; the rate is no longer called a General Fund rate. (5) The City of Houston comparison uses the City pay structure effective July 4, 2026 (median county minimum advantage 26%, not 31%; exact titles 61 of 69, not 64) and the HPD published cadet base; the prediction about FY27 county sworn rates is removed. (6) The $92M health-fund shortfall is described as what the $100M contribution answers, not an extra deficit; the TCDRS 225% match is distinguished from the 14.5% contribution rate. (7) The contract-patrol $90.8M is split as the book splits it; the FY27 FEAR statement in Section 7 is corrected; the ACFR control findings and the Volume II General Administration base discrepancy are added.