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County leaders continue to work on the county’s upcoming budget, and one of the biggest issues to overcome is closing the budget deficit. After a decision not to cut benefits for county employees, the budget deficit is now sitting at around $48 million.
Democrats are now being blamed for causing that budget deficit by wasting COVID relief dollars. Harris County GOP Chair Cindy Siegel said, "They've spent like drunken sailors when they should have been looking to the future and looking towards how they can provide services."
She says that money was instead used to set up various pet projects, and now that those COVID relief dollars are no longer coming in, those programs are completely unfunded, and Democrats are still hesitant to shut them down.
Siegel summarized by saying, "Why are we in this spot? Because they were starting these new programs that they couldn't sustain. They need to get back to the basics." She says those basics are things like infrastructure, public safety, and public health.
She added that at the end of the day, the real solution to this problem is going to be at the ballot box, saying, "We used to have a really strong, well-run, economically viable county government, and under Democrat leadership, it's been a huge failure."