Property owners in Friendswood, Webster, Seabrook, Nassau Bay and Clear Lake Shores won't see a new county tax on their November ballots after Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's motion to place a 1-cent property tax increase before voters died Thursday, Aug. 6, without a second.

The proposal, brought before Commissioners Court, would have cost the average Harris County homeowner about $26 per year and generated an estimated $66.6 million annually for childcare and preschool subsidies, Hidalgo said at the meeting, according to KPRC 2.

No one joined her.

Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey said the county will likely raise its tax rates more this year than any other in recent history, even without Hidalgo's proposal. "All people want to talk about now is affordability," Ramsey said, according to the Houston Chronicle. "For us to be considering a significant tax increase this year would be not listening to the folks that are out there."

Commissioner Rodney Ellis, whom the Chronicle described as Hidalgo's closest ally on the court, also declined to second the motion. Ellis said skyrocketing childcare prices should be addressed by the state or federal government, not the county.

The failure marks the second straight year the proposal has stalled. Hidalgo made a nearly identical pitch in August 2025, when she brought dozens of children to the courtroom to pressure colleagues. That effort also failed to advance.

The county's existing early childhood program provides free daycare and preschool to about 1,000 eligible low-income children, but its funding source, federal COVID-era grant dollars, runs out in December. Even if voters had approved the tax increase, Hidalgo said the court's 2025 refusal already forced the program toward a pause: the county would have needed roughly a year to generate enough revenue, meaning services could not have restarted until 2028.

More than 90,000 children countywide are on a waitlist for subsidized childcare, according to a Texas Workforce Commission fact sheet cited by the Chronicle. Hidalgo cited a separate figure of more than 30,000 families on the waitlist during Thursday's meeting.

Harris County faces a $130 million budget deficit for the coming fiscal year. Commissioners Lesley Briones and Adrian Garcia have pursued a separate strategy, gathering stakeholder organizations and developing a childcare plan to present to the Texas Legislature in January.

With the motion dead and no future vote scheduled, the county program's December funding cliff remains unresolved.