Houston controller outlines $100M‑plus budget gap, urges residents to speak at May 21 public hearing

Houston City Controller Chris Hollins told residents at an Acres Homes town hall on May 20 that the city faces a significant structural budget shortfall and invited attendees to make their priorities known at a public hearing scheduled for May 21 and to contact council members before May 28.

Hollins, the city’s independently elected chief financial officer, said the city’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget is roughly $7 billion in total — about $3 billion in the general fund and $4 billion in enterprise funds — and that the controller’s office projects a structural deficit of about $134 million for the coming year (the mayor’s office projection in Hollins’s presentation was about $107 million). He stressed the city is still awaiting a judge’s decision on a legal settlement that could reduce next year’s costs by about $91 million.

The controller said his office’s priorities are accountability, transparency and innovation, and he outlined how the budget is funded and where money goes. “A structurally balanced budget means that your recurring revenue … pays for those recurring expenses,” Hollins said. “If that recurring revenue does not pay for those recurring expenses then you got a problem.”

Hollins emphasized that a majority of general‑fund spending goes to public safety and debt service: the presentation showed police at about $1.1 billion and fire at about $660 million, together roughly 60 percent of general‑fund expenditures, with debt service the third‑largest line item. He also…