(Texas Scorecard) – Harris County’s Flood Control District is facing scrutiny after a local watchdog identified a billion-dollar discrepancy in the accounting of the 2018 flood bond program.
Recent HCFCD financial reports appear to show a sudden drop of more than $1 billion in available bond funds that officials have yet to explain.
The issue came to light when Bob Rehak, who runs the watchdog site ReduceFlooding.com, compared HCFCD’s Year-End 2024 bond report with its First Quarter 2025 update.
According to Rehak’s analysis, HCFCD reported spending only about $44 million in the first quarter of 2025, yet the reported “funds remaining” in the bond program dropped by roughly $1.07 billion over the same period.
In one example, the San Jacinto River watershed’s remaining funds plunged by $143 million despite only $168,000 in new spending, with no explanation in the documents.
Similar unexplained decreases occurred in virtually every watershed, adding up to a billion dollars on paper.
“Open one report and you see the cash. Open the next and you don’t,” Rehak wrote, noting that the totals should balance out but clearly do not.
HCFCD has not publicly clarified the discrepancy.
The two bond reports in question were released on June 26, immediately after a Harris County Commissioners Court meeting where HCFCD Executive Director Dr. Tina Petersen warned that the 2018 flood bond program faced a funding shortfall of around $1.3 billion.
County officials attributed the gap to inflation, rising construction costs, and reliance on partner funding, which have left insufficient money to finish all the projects voters were promised.
Official bond updates made no mention of missing funds. In fact, the 2024 year-end report touted “achieving funding stability,” claiming the county was “exceeding the original goal of the program and removing any funding uncertainty.”
This optimistic assessment starkly contradicted the grim outlook presented to the commissioners court.
County Judge Lina Hidalgo, citing frustration with inconsistent information, pressed HCFCD for answers. “I would like to see the receipts,” Hidalgo said at the June 26 meeting, demanding detailed documentation for bond expenditures.
She later noted that even her office had trouble getting “clear, concise information” from the flood control district and warned that if a project-by-project accounting isn’t provided in the coming months, it would be “the last straw” for her confidence in HCFCD’s leadership.
The Harris County Auditor’s Office is now reviewing the flood bond contracting and reporting process, with a report to the commissioners court expected in the near future.
The commissioners court’s Democrat majority reacted to the funding concerns by voting to redirect all remaining bond funds toward a set of projects in historically underserved neighborhoods.
In a 4–1 vote, commissioners instructed the flood control district to pull money from lower-priority projects so top-priority “equity” projects could be fully funded.
Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey’s office told Texas Scorecard he was pleased with a motion unanimously approved on Thursday to “fund all existing CDBG and other secured partnerships and grants tied to the Harris County 2018 Flood Bond.”
Ramsey still wants to address the remaining projects voters approved in 2018, but that will come in September, according to Precinct 3 Director of Communications Amery Reid.
So far, however, no detailed public accounting has been released to reconcile the billion-dollar discrepancy in the reports.
The revelations have raised broader transparency concerns about how flood bond funds are tracked and managed. Dozens of flood-weary residents and community advocates packed the recent commissioners court meeting, saying they felt blindsided and demanding clearer information on project funding.
Advocacy groups like Bayou City Waterkeeper have called for an accessible public dashboard to track the status and funding of bond projects in real time.
County leaders across the political spectrum agree that public trust is at stake. “Taxpayers deserve transparency in all flood control initiatives, beyond just bond projects,” said one local water safety advocate, emphasizing the need for accountability.
The $2.5 billion flood bond was approved by voters in 2018 to finance critical flood mitigation work after Hurricane Harvey. Due to additional grants and partner contributions, the bond program secured about $5 billion in total funding.
Yet nearly seven years later, only roughly 30 percent of the bond’s funds have been spent, and many projects remain unfinished or not even started. Now, the newly identified budget gap threatens to derail dozens of planned projects countywide.
One priority flood detention project in the Aldine area, for example, faces a $17.9 million shortfall that could delay its completion. Officials have even floated the possibility that another bond measure might be needed in the future to cover the promises of the first one.
For now, no public funds have been reported as “missing” outright. The billion-dollar discrepancy could be due to accounting adjustments, shifting cost estimates, or errors in financial reporting, rather than any illegal diversion of money. Rehak, the local watchdog who uncovered the inconsistency, stressed that he is not alleging fraud.
“This could simply be a case of mislabeling, bad proofreading, or the sloppiest financial reporting ever,” he wrote, while urging an independent audit to verify the numbers.
Elected officials in Austin may also take interest; state lawmakers have previously intervened in Harris County’s management of elections and other issues, and some local leaders have hinted that state oversight might be sought if the flood bond accounting isn’t straightened out.
Harris County residents are still waiting for clear answers. With billions of tax dollars dedicated to flood relief, many say they simply want to ensure every penny is properly accounted for—and that promised flood mitigation projects aren’t washed away by bookkeeping surprises.
Texas Scorecard contacted the Harris County Auditor’s office to ask if funds were missing and was told to file a public information request, which has been done. The auditor’s office has 10 days to process the request.