RICHMOND, Texas — Fort Bend County’s top budget and finance officials told Commissioners Court on Tuesday that a proposed pay raise for county employees, four pending bond issues and dozens of capital projects could all be lost if two commissioners continue to boycott court meetings and prevent the panel from reaching the four-member quorum required to adopt a new tax rate.
The warnings came during the first of the county’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget workshops, held with only three of five Commissioners Court members present. Commissioners Grady Prestage and Dexter McCoy have stayed away from recent proceedings, leaving County Judge Daniel Wong and Commissioners Andy Meyers and Vincent Morales short of the four votes state law requires to set the county’s property tax rate.
Budget Director Pamela Gubbels told the court that while most county business can proceed with a three-member quorum, adopting an annual tax rate requires four members present. If the county cannot reach that threshold, Texas law automatically sets the tax rate at whichever is lower, the current year’s rate or the proposed no-new-revenue rate. In Fort Bend County’s case, that would be the no-new-revenue rate.
Gubbels said that outcome would force the county to strip a proposed cost-of-living adjustment for employees out of the budget entirely. The raise, budgeted at a $10.4 million placeholder, would fund roughly a 3% increase for full- and part-time county employees, including sheriff’s deputies, dispatchers, road and bridge crews, health workers and librarians. Without it, Gubbels said the county’s ending fund balance would land at 29.5%, just short of its 30% policy target, though she said auditors had indicated a plan to rebuild the balance the following year would be an acceptable, not ideal, fallback.
County Auditor Ed Sturdivant told commissioners the fallout would extend well beyond payroll. Four bond issues now in progress, including $120 million in mobility bonds and $30 million in parks bonds, require voter-approved tax authority that also depends on a four-member quorum, he said. The county’s certificate-of-obligation funding is nearly exhausted, Sturdivant said, and its flood control bond fund is within $700,000 to $800,000 of running out.
If the quorum issue is not resolved, Sturdivant said he would have to halt the county’s bond stream, since it is not paid unless bonds are issued, and instruct engineering and parks staff to pause mobility and parks projects once existing funds run dry. He said the county likely would not be able to pursue new debt until the fiscal year 2028 budget cycle. Recovering from a shift to the no-new-revenue rate, which he estimated could cut $13 million to $21 million from the budget, would take as long as five years, he said, and could be complicated further if the state tightens revenue-cap laws in its next legislative session.
Deputy Budget Officer staff also outlined roughly $40.2 million in recommended capital equipment and infrastructure projects that would not move forward without a quorum, including replacement of 178 county vehicles, copiers and printers, and road and bridge equipment. A separate list of projects, among them a jury assembly room refresh, jail roof and piping insulation work, justice center lighting controls, library upgrades and new fire trucks, was not recommended for this cycle regardless of the quorum outcome.
Officials laid out a revised calendar built around the uncertainty. Commissioners Court is set to propose a tax rate and set public hearings at its Aug. 13 meeting, with the proposed budget filed Aug. 31. Public hearings are scheduled for Sept. 9, with final adoption of the tax rate and budget targeted for Sept. 10, moved up from a previously planned Sept. 23 date to leave time to republish notices if a quorum still isn’t available. County officials said the tax rate must be adopted by Sept. 30, after which the no-new-revenue rate would take effect automatically, requiring the court to ratify it within five days.
Wong, in a statement released through his office, said the county’s employees “should never become casualties of a political boycott” and renewed his call for Prestage and McCoy to end their absence from the court. “Our financial professionals made it clear that continued inaction threatens employee pay raises, critical infrastructure projects, and the County’s long-term financial stability,” Wong said.
Bobby Eberle, communications director for Wong’s office, said county employees do not have the option of skipping work over disagreements and argued the same should be expected of elected officials.
Prestage and McCoy, in a joint statement, said the standoff is tied to a pending legal challenge to Wong’s authority to serve as county judge and preside over Commissioners Court. The Fort Bend County Attorney’s office has filed a quo warranto action asking a court to determine whether Wong is lawfully entitled to hold the position. The two commissioners said they do not believe they can participate in court proceedings while that question remains unresolved, saying the move is consistent with their oath to uphold the Texas Constitution.
“This should not be about politics. It should be about protecting the integrity of county government,” Prestage said. Both commissioners said they continue working in their precincts and are willing to help pass a budget once the legal question over Wong’s authority is settled. “The path forward to pass a budget is clear, and we are willing to work with our colleagues to make that happen with unquestioned legal authority,” McCoy said.
Neither Prestage nor McCoy attended Tuesday’s workshop. County officials said both commissioners have been briefed on the budget and financial impacts described during the session.