Dominic Walsh/HPM
Houston Mayor John Whitmire speaks at the state of the city address on Feb. 12, 2026.
At his second State of the City event on Thursday, Houston Mayor John Whitmire addressed daunting fiscal challenges and unveiled his aspirational visions.
The address came about a year before the next municipal campaign season, when Whitmire will seek a second four-year term.
“I’m prepared to give six years — the remaining best years of my life — for Houston,” said Whitmire, who is 76 years old. If reelected, he would be 82 years old at the end of his second term.
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He said the main message of the address was “Houston is a strong city and is getting stronger every day.”
Aspirations and challenges
The city of Houston faced its highest-ever budget deficit last year, as expenses outpaced revenues by nearly $150 million. As the end of the current fiscal year in June approaches, the city again faces a daunting deficit — expected to exceed $120 million, with additional overages possible as the police, fire and solid waste departments are projected to overshoot their overtime budgets by about $54 million.
Throughout his first two years in office, Whitmire refused to increase the property tax rate. He said the trend will continue until the city eliminates “waste, duplication, conflicts of interest and corruption.”
“We’re not going to raise taxes in this next budget cycle,” Whitmire said. “We’re going to look for efficiencies, collaboration, eliminate corruption, conflicts. It can be done, and it will be done.”
He highlighted the voluntary retirement incentive program put forward by his administration last year, in which about 1,000 workers retired in exchange for lump sum buyouts equaling 25% of their annual salaries. It is projected to save $35 million per year from the city’s $3 billion general fund.
He also pointed to an efficiency study and “forensic audit” conducted by professional services firm Ernst & Young, which led to departmental consolidations and ongoing contract renegotiation. The administration has not yet released a precise dollar figure for expected savings tied to the study’s recommendations.
When pressed by Houston Public Media about the administration’s specific plan to balance the budget after the event, Whitmire said, “It’s an ongoing process.”
“We have a solid plan, and we roll it out at the appropriate time,” he said.
Whitmire also unveiled a set of aspirations — including a METRO light rail connection to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, “huge pipes” to channel stormwater along I-10 from the Barker Reservoir to the Houston Ship Channel, as well as a water tax service on the Buffalo Bayou connecting Downtown to the East End.
“It ain’t a tease. It’s going to get done,” Whitmire said of the proposals. “It may not get done in the next six years, but we are actually meeting on these projects as I stand before you.”
Whitmire, business leaders highlight progress
Steve Kean — president and CEO of the business group Greater Houston Partnership, which co-hosted the event with Houston First — highlighted the recent decisions by the Expand Energy company, formerly known as Chesapeake, and the Devon Energy company to relocate their headquarters to Houston.
“One of Houston’s greatest strengths is that we benefit from a bipartisan consensus in favor of private sector investment growth and job creation,” Kean said. “Companies have choices, and they are choosing Houston.”
Michael Heckman, president and CEO of Houston First, hyped up the ongoing $2 billion, more than 10-year transformation of the George R. Brown Convention Center, which he said will “reimagine the eastern edge of downtown.” He thanked the city council for approving the project debt financing package on Wednesday.
During his address, Whitmire underscored his administration’s success in reversing years of a declining police department workforce. After reaching an $832 million deal with the police union last year, the department now has 5,400 officers, up from 5,000.
Whitmire also celebrated the unified Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, which was previously split into two events organized by different groups.
“The African American community is so excited because I merged those institutions, and the theme was Dr. King was all about — unity,” he said.
Whitmire postponed the annual State of the City event in September as workers at the Hilton Americas-Houston were on strike, demanding higher wages. After 40 days on the picket line, the UNITE HERE Local 23 union reached an agreement in October, boosting base hourly pay from $16.50 to $20.
Whitmire said he first heard about the low pay when he was on the campaign trail, when he promised the union “that will not be allowed under my administration.”
“You know how we solved it?” Whitmire said. “I explained to Hilton — which is a great American corporation — that we were going to build another convention hotel with the development and expansion of George Brown, and I sure hope they were going to be on the list that we considered.”
Houston First owns the hotel which Hilton operates. In response to Whitmire’s comments, Heckman told Houston Public Media, “We were just proud that it ended in the fashion that it did.”