The Harris County District Attorney’s office will receive only a nominal increase in funding after it ignored a county directive to include options to reduce spending when it proposed its budget in May, according to county officials. 

The lapse means the office will automatically forgo $6 million after its chief financial officer acknowledged she did not read the county’s directive — resulting in the submission of an ineligible proposal for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. 

The $6 million reduction, equal to 5 percent of the office’s 2024 budget, will be temporary, with the county set to restore a prorated sum of $4.5 million after a new district attorney takes over in January. 

Nevertheless, it represents a preventable loss of funds to an agency at the core of the county’s criminal justice system. Because the cut is offset by a variety of funding increases, the district attorney’s office budget will grow by just $16,000 compared to the current fiscal year.

County officials and the district attorney’s office disagree over the potential impact of the cut, with the district attorney’s office arguing the shortfall will impede its ability to staff six new felony courts intended to reduce Harris County’s case backlog. County commissioners, however, rejected that argument, pointing to an overall funding increase for the office in past years. 

At the heart of the disconnect: a requirement from the Harris County Office of Management and Budget that every agency factor a 5 percent funding cut into its proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

On page six of its standard operating procedures manual, which was provided via email to every agency head and fiscal liaison in early May, the budget office emphasized that Commissioners Court would not necessarily approve the cuts in the final county budget — but cautioned that agencies that failed to follow instructions would receive a 5 percent funding reduction “automatically.” 

Of the 86 county offices that submitted budget proposals,four failed to identify potential spending cuts of any kind — the Precinct 6 Constable’s Office, the Civil Service of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Probate Court 5, and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Of the four departments, the district attorney’s office is by far the largest. 

‘I didn’t read it’

Vivian King, chief of staff and chief financial officer at the district attorney’s office, acknowledged in an interview with the Landing that she had not read the standard operating procedures issued by the budget office, and assumed the 5 percent cut in the proposed budget would be implemented instead of merely considered by Commissioners Court.

“I didn’t read it,” she said of the manual. “Maybe my finance people read it and didn’t tell me that.” 

King said her office did not include potential cuts in its budget proposal because she did not want to hamstring the “poor prosecutors who work night and day for the people of Harris County for the cause and not for the money.”

“I didn’t say that we wouldn’t do it,” she said. “I said (to the budget office), ‘Do it for us.’ I’m not going to look at my employees and cut their jobs.” 

King also said the shortfall will complicate the office’s efforts to fulfill a legal obligation: funding and hiring new prosecutors for Harris County’s six new felony courts, which were approved by Texas legislators in 2023. King is the Democratic candidate for judge in one of those new courts, the 486th District Court. 

“Who am I gonna cut when we’re gonna staff these new courts?” she asked. “I agonized over this. The prosecutors read these budgets.”

Fractured relationship

Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia dismissed the argument that the 5 percent reduction in funding would undermine public safety in any way before the end of 2024, when the incumbent Kim Ogg will leave office. 

“There is enough money for that office to operate until her term is up,” Garcia said in a statement. “Over the last six years, (the district attorney’s) budget has increased by nearly $40 million, so it makes no sense that anyone would need to be let go. We will reassess their needs when the new DA starts in January.” 

Ellis issued his own statement defending the budget process.

“Our FY25 budget prioritizes the health and safety of all communities and was created through a transparent process,” he wrote. “I’m looking forward to working with a new DA in January to finally remove politics from that office and focus on advancing public safety for all.”

Ogg, who has served two terms, lost the Democratic primary in March to former Harris County prosecutor Sean Teare. He will face Republican Dan Simons in the November general election. 

“I don’t know whether it was pure oversight and lack of management that got us to this point, or if it was an intentional instruction from the DA not to submit (an eligible budget) for political reasons, but I think they should have to answer for this,” Teare said. 

Simons, however, blasted Commissioners Court for “defunding law enforcement.” 

“They continue to target the district attorney’s office by overfunding the public defender’s office at the expense of murder victims,” he said in a statement. “Prosecutors need more support. Like the current DA, I will push for every resource.”   

The proposed county budget for fiscal 2025 increases funding for the Harris County Public Defender’s Office by nearly $12 million as part of an ongoing expansion of the agency. The public defender’s office represents criminal defendants unable to afford a lawyer. 

Ogg has long had a fractured relationship with Commissioners Court, which she repeatedly has accused of “defunding” an office she says is understaffed and overworked. Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey alluded to that rocky dynamic in his own reaction to the cut, which he called the outcome of a “flawed budgeting process.” 

“The budget office… (has) a history of not funding the district attorney’s office, which is being targeted because of their politics,” he said in a statement. “I’ll be making a motion this week to not only restore the money removed from this important law enforcement agency, but also to increase it.” 

The district attorney’s office has not yet determined how it will manage the budget cut during Ogg’s remaining three months in charge, an agency spokesperson said in an email Tuesday.

“I think the Office of Management and Budget should be trying to help us with our problems, not trying to burden us like this,” King said. “This is a crying shame. I’m not playing politics with these people’s lives. This is just sad.”

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