Houston Fire, Police Departments Face $67 Million Overtime Budget Overrun

The city budget usually speaks in millions. But when City Controller Chris Hollins told Houston City Council on April 1 that the fire and police departments were on track to blow past their spending targets by a combined $67 million, the number translated to something concrete: roughly $73 for every household in Houston, absorbed by overtime paychecks instead of park upkeep, road repairs, or library hours.

Finance Department Director Will Jones delivered the underlying figures at the March 31 Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting. The Houston Fire Department is expected to increase total expenditures by roughly $51 million, with approximately $39 million of that driven by overtime alone. The Houston Police Department adds another $16 million, with $11.8 million traceable to overtime. Together, the two departments account for $50.8 million in overtime overruns above what the city originally budgeted.

The original FY 2025-26 budget set aside $64 million for overtime across departments, a figure Hollins told council was never realistic. "That gap wasn't going to close on its own, and it didn't," he said. "That's an additional $50 million in deficit spending." The cumulative result is a projected $174 million general fund deficit, what Hollins described as "the largest single-year drawdown in the history of the city of Houston."

Staffing vacancies are the core engine of the problem. The Houston Fire Department has historically used overtime to cover shifts at understaffed stations, running as many as 304 brownouts, temporary closures of fire station units, before HFD Chief Tom Munoz launched a sustained hiring push. Munoz told council his department expects a net increase of 200 classified personnel in fiscal 2026, supported by improving cadet-class retention: attrition has dropped from roughly 45% in fiscal 2024 to a projected 12% for classes graduating this year. Those gains have cut active brownouts to just 26, but the hiring pipeline has not yet translated into overtime relief. Firefighters averaged 46.7 hours per week against the standard 40-hour week.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup adds a near-term pressure point that money alone may not solve. Houston will host seven matches at NRG Stadium and expects roughly 500,000 international visitors, generating crowd-control and event-security demands the city cannot meet without overtime. Council unanimously approved a request for $64.6 million in federal Homeland Security grant funding to offset World Cup policing costs, but those dollars are not yet in hand.

Previous budgets papered over chronic overtime spending by allowing departments to draw from salary lines budgeted for vacant positions. That informal cushion has narrowed as the city simultaneously funds 36.5% officer pay raises and $10,000 signing bonuses for police cadets. If the trajectory holds, Hollins warned, Houston could enter fiscal 2027 facing a deficit between $227 million and $253 million. "In a couple of years' time, we would run out of money if we don't change anything," he said.

Mayor John Whitmire announced a citywide hiring freeze in March and has pledged a balanced budget by May. Hollins' office is conducting a formal audit of overtime practices within the fire, police, and solid waste departments, with results expected by late spring or early summer. The audit is expected to surface the top overtime-generating units and assess whether binding vacancy-fill timelines and spending caps are enforceable before the next budget cycle begins.