Tax Assessor-Collector may not be the sexiest race on the Nov. 5 ballot, but the office affects nearly every adult in Harris County in some way.

Democrat Annette Ramirez, 52, and Republican Steve Radack, 74, are vying to succeed retiring Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett. The election pits a relative newcomer to Harris County politics in Ramirez against a well-funded longtime public official in Radack. 

“This is the one office that is guaranteed to touch every single taxpayer in this county every day,” Ramirez said. 

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As the name implies, the office is tasked with collecting and disbursing property taxes on behalf of most of the taxing jurisdictions in the county. The office’s duties, however, extend well beyond taxes, including processing motor vehicle and boat registrations and title transfers and issuing licenses for a host of activities. 

The office also is the county’s voter registrar, responsible for registering voters and maintaining the voter rolls.

Radack, the Precinct 3 commissioner from 1988 until 2020, said he largely is happy with the operation of the office, though he aims to improve its overall efficiency. He also plans some improvements in the way the county identifies properties with tax exemptions they should not have.

His top priority, however, is to serve as a check on Harris County Commissioners Court, a Democratic-controlled body he said has become radically liberal and experienced a “disgusting” lack of decorum.

“It’s not like the tax assessor doesn’t have any power. Sometimes it’s about being able to stand up and say ‘look at how much this costs the taxpayers,’” Radack said. “I have no problem exposing waste, and I believe we need to look at this differently.”

To achieve that, Radack said he will lean on a massive warchest of unspent campaign funds from his days as a commissioner. In his most recent campaign finance report filed near the end of July, Radack reported a little more than $725,000 in cash on hand.

Ramirez reported about $29,500 in her July filing. 

Long public careers

Radack’s campaign website is emblazoned with the central message of his campaign: “Experience that counts.” 

Radack has been a public servant in Harris County for the  majority of his career, beginning in 1969 when he joined the Houston Police Department, where he worked as a police officer for 11 years. After leaving the department in 1980 to start a ceiling fan business with his wife, Radack reentered law enforcement in 1984, when he was elected Precinct 5 constable. He served in that role for one term before winning the Precinct 3 seat on Commissioners Court. 

Radack was known as an outspoken member of the court who prioritized the creation of parks, roads and bridges in his precinct. His last year on the court was spent often in opposition to the court’s Democratic majority, but he has not always toed the Republican Party line, including calling for state leadership to expand Medicaid. 

While Ramirez may lack Radack’s experience as an elected official, she contends her decades of work as a tax attorney for Aldine Independent School District has more than prepared her for the job. 

The youngest of three children of Mexican immigrants, Ramirez was born and raised in El Paso. She graduated from Texas A&M-Galveston with a bachelor’s degree in maritime administration in 1995. Her career initially began in logistics and operations in the oil and gas industry before she changed directions and attended South Texas College of Law, where she received her law degree in 2000.

A single mother of three, Ramirez lived in Galveston County for most of that career, commuting to her job in Harris County. Ramirez said she moved to Houston’s Rice Military neighborhood in April 2023. Her two youngest children still live in their old home while they attend the University of Houston-Clear Lake, Ramirez said. 

Since 2002, Ramirez has been employed by Aldine ISD, the only school district in Harris County that handles its property tax litigation in house rather than contracting with an outside firm. In that role, Ramirez sues property owners with delinquent tax bills, much like the outside firms contracted by other taxing authorities. 

Outside firms typically take a percentage of the penalty assessed on late bills, a system that can prioritize heavy-handed litigation rather than an effort to work with the owner of a delinquent account, Ramirez said. Even with a gentler approach, delinquent tax fees more than cover the cost of her office, Ramirez said, allowing its employees to offer payment plans for late fees and allocate resources to educating the public about the tax system.

Ramirez said she plans to bring that experience to county government, where Commissioners Court moved the county’s delinquent tax litigation to the county attorney’s office in 2023. Ramirez said she has discussed best practices with county officials several times during the transition. 

“There isn’t any other entity within Harris County that did that, so I felt my experience was useful, and I want to see the county attorney succeed in this endeavor,” Ramirez said. “I wanted to put my experience to use.”

Voter registrar duties

Both candidates say addressing voter registration also is a top priority as the office grapples with recent changes. 

The tax office handled voter registration duties prior to 2020, when Commissioners Court established a separate elections department to register voters, maintain the voter rolls and conduct elections with an appointed administrator. After paper ballot shortages and long lines plagued some polling locations in the county during the November 2022 election, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature eliminated the county’s elections administration office and returned the role of voter registrar back to the tax assessor-collector. 

Radack and Ramirez said the recent changes have left the voter registrar department understaffed and both said they plan to increase personnel. 

RELATED: Tatum out of a job as Harris County moves election duties back to clerk and tax offices

Radack said he supported the reversal because he does not believe the office registering voters should be the same office that counts votes, although a majority of Texas’ counties appoint a nonpartisan elections administrator. 

Radack contended Harris County has a problem with ineligible people voting in elections. Asked if he thought it was significant enough to swing an election in the county, Radack said yes, although he provided no evidence. 

“There are people, and I’m not talking about any particular party, there are people who get a thrill out of figuring out how many times they can go vote,” Radack said.

The 2022 midterm elections heightened GOP concerns around the voting process in the county after some polling places ran out of ballot paper, causing some voters to be turned away. A Texas Rangers investigation found there was no attempt to sway the results by either party, but the controversy sparked lawsuits from several Republican candidates seeking to throw out the results of their races. In May, a judge ordered a new election in a district judge race where the Republican candidate lost by several hundred votes.

Countless studies have found voter fraud does occur, but it is exceedingly rare because of safeguards that already exist, including voter registration and photo identification requirements. 

Ramirez’s plans for voter registration look to many of the initiatives from the former elections administrator’s office. Ramirez said she would use a larger staff to bring back a program to reach out to registered, but inactive voters who risk being suspended from the voter rolls. She also said she would like to expand voter registration initiatives by partnering with groups across the county. 

“It needs to be expanded and it needs to be consistent, 365 days a year,” Ramirez said. 

Despite the removal of the elections administrator, the next tax assessor-collector still may have to contend with state officials resistant to many voter outreach initiatives. 

Commissioners Court recently backed down on a plan to send unsolicited voter registration forms to eligible but unregistered residents after Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened to sue the county over the proposal. Paxton did sue Bexar County earlier this month over its approval of a similar measure. 

Early voting begins Oct. 21.

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