New report shows how often Harris County isn't paying its bills on time

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- After hitting taxpayers with higher property taxes, a new report shows Harris County isn't paying a number of its bills on time, and it's costing more money.

During commissioners' court on Tuesday, County Administrator Diana Ramirez showed commissioners how often the county isn't paying its bills within a month. After seeing the report, commissioners called the system broken, and are demanding immediate change.

They're upset because each time a bill isn't paid on time, the county has to pay interest, costing taxpayers more money. ABC13 asked the administrator's office how much has been spent over the last two years in interest on late payments but has yet to receive the data.

Numbers show two years ago, a number of bills weren't being paid on time. They've implemented a new system, but it's still not good enough for commissioners.

The county administrator met with commissioners on Tuesday to talk about the issue. Diana Ramirez said after discovering many bills weren't being paid, they've made changes.

Two years ago, about 25% of invoices weren't paid within a month. In fact, nearly 7% of bills weren't paid within three months.

It's better, but there are still a lot of bills not being paid on time. The number of bills not paid within a month for the current year is down to about 14 percent. The number of bills waiting to be paid within three months is down to 3%.

However, commissioners say it's still not good enough, and they want immediate accountability.

"The fact we're not even tracking interest we owe," Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones said. "The fact that simultaneously invoices aren't being sent to the auditor and the department that we're watching the clock. I mean, this is fundamentals, I would argue."

"You've got a lot of problems," Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey said. "We've got to treat it like we've got a lot of problems, and it's a data time. Tomorrow's going to be better than today. We can't walk out of this meeting thinking, 'Well, we've got a plan."

County leaders say they plan to come back early next year to give an update. That's too long for some commissioners.

They want an update by the next commissioners' court meeting later this month.

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