Following recent storms in the state, homeowners in Texas’ most populous county face an 8 percent property tax increase.

Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 storm on July 8, leaving nearly 3 million people without power at the height of the blackouts, most of them in the Houston area.

Tax commissioners in Harris County, which includes most of Houston, are taking advantage of a loophole in state law that allows them to exceed the state’s 3.5 percent cap on property tax increases without voter approval. They are raising property taxes in the county by 8 percent after lawmakers granted counties that have recently experienced disaster an exemption from tax increases above the cap, Fox 26 reported.

Tom Ramsey, county commissioner for the Third District and the only Republican on the district court, told the station that the district does not have a revenue problem, but a spending problem.

“They want to pass an 8 percent tax increase, which is $268 million more than we had this year,” he said. “Let me put it another way. We were able to fund all of our programs this year, take care of all of our businesses, do everything we need to do this year, but we need another $268 million? We have a spending problem in Harris County, not a revenue problem.”

Ramsey also expressed concern that the additional revenue would be spent on social programs rather than improving infrastructure and making it more weatherproof.

Ramsey and other Harris County commissioners were contacted via email for comment.

Separately, Harris County voters will also decide in November on a proposed property tax increase for the Harris County Flood Control District.

At a meeting earlier this month, Harris County members voted unanimously to adopt a tax rate of 0.0489 percent per $100 of value.

The proposed tax rate is above the voter approval rate of 0.03316 percent per $100 of value. Voters must therefore approve the measure or the flood control district’s tax rate would automatically adjust to the voter approval rate.

The proposed tax increase would raise an additional $100 million in revenue, which officials say would be used to finance infrastructure and flood protection projects.

“The reason I can share this with the voters of Harris County without shame is because it serves a purpose,” Ramsey told Community Impact News in early August. “It’s about maintaining our flood protection. We have 22 watersheds (and) over 2,500 miles of infrastructure that we need to maintain. So I strongly support this.”