Associate judge urges Fort Bend commissioners to reverse cuts as county holds FY2027 budget hearings

RICHMOND, Texas — Fort Bend County Commissioners Court held back-to-back public hearings Wednesday evening on the proposed fiscal year 2027 budgets for the county and its Drainage District, with a sitting associate judge using the county’s hearing to publicly appeal for reinstatement of three associate judge positions cut from the spending plan.

No votes were taken on either budget Wednesday. Both hearings, required under Texas Local Government Code Section 111.067, were procedural steps toward final adoption, and County Judge Daniel Wong closed each after taking public comment. The court voted to adjourn both meetings without objection, though individual vote counts were not read into the record.

The county’s public hearing, which opened at 5:30 p.m., drew one speaker: Felicia Young, an associate judge for the 328th Judicial District Court, who asked commissioners to restore funding for three associate judge positions that were removed from the proposed FY2027 budget. Young said she and colleagues learned of the cuts only after the budget was released, when an email went out notifying affected judges they had been removed from their courts’ budget lines.

“There’s never been a time in the history of Fort Bend County when the family courts have shared an associate judge,” Young told the court, arguing that the three statutory family law courts she said are affected — including her own 328th District Court, along with the 387th and 507th — have historically each had a dedicated associate judge rather than a shared one.

Young disputed the county’s rationale that eliminating the positions would save taxpayer money, telling commissioners that the FY2027 budget itself shows it costs more than $600,000 to run a single court without an associate judge, once additional staffing such as bailiffs, prosecutors and clerks is factored in. She also pushed back on the county’s use of a state Office of Court Administration work-study report to justify the cuts, saying the report was designed to help counties gauge court efficiency, not to identify redundant judgeships.

“I would ask respectfully that you all would reconsider your position,” Young said, adding that no member of the public had spoken in favor of the cuts when the issue previously came before the court. She asked commissioners to table the reductions for another year rather than eliminate the positions immediately, saying doing so would pose no harm since the positions were already funded.

Young cited data showing 7,612 new family law cases were filed in Fort Bend County in 2025 alone, not counting a backlog of pending cases, and said associate judges also handle extensive off-bench work — including reviewing and correcting orders and conducting lengthy temporary-order hearings — that isn’t captured in monthly OCA clearance-rate reports. She also argued that associate judges hearing tax cases generate revenue for the county and that specialty courts run by associate judges help reduce costly jail stays and case resets.

Judge Wong and other commissioners did not respond substantively to Young’s remarks during the hearing, and the court took no action on the associate judge funding Wednesday. After confirming no other speakers wished to address the county budget, Wong closed the public hearing and the court adjourned that portion of the meeting.

Commissioners then convened as the Fort Bend County Drainage District Board of Directors at 5:42 p.m. for a separate public hearing on the district’s proposed FY2027 budget. No members of the public signed up to speak on the drainage district budget, and Wong closed that hearing after asking twice whether anyone in attendance wished to comment. The board then adjourned.

Neither hearing included a staff presentation or detailed breakdown of budget figures, revenue projections or tax-rate implications for either the general county budget or the Drainage District budget, based on the transcript of the meeting. No dollar amounts for either the total county budget or the drainage district budget were stated during the proceedings.

The dispute over associate judge funding stems from earlier budget decisions this year, referenced by Young, in which commissioners eliminated three associate judge positions across the county’s family and general-jurisdiction courts. Young said she was told during those earlier discussions that no judicial position had ever previously been defunded in Fort Bend County history. The court did not confirm or dispute that characterization Wednesday.

Final adoption of both the county’s FY2027 budget and the Drainage District’s FY2027 budget will require future action by Commissioners Court; Wednesday’s hearings served only to receive public input as required by state law before any adoption vote. No date for a final budget vote was announced during the meeting.

Also at this meeting:

• Commissioners Court convened two separate public hearings Wednesday — one on the county’s proposed FY2027 budget and one on the Fort Bend County Drainage District’s proposed FY2027 budget — both required under Texas Local Government Code Section 111.067.
• Associate Judge Felicia Young of the 328th District Court was the only person to speak at either hearing, focusing her comments on proposed elimination of three associate judge positions.
• No speakers registered to comment on the Drainage District budget hearing.
• The court took no votes on budget adoption at this meeting; both hearings ended with motions to adjourn.
• Young referenced a prior commissioners’ decision earlier this year to cut three associate judge positions, which she said were removed from individual courts’ budgets shortly after the FY2027 budget was released.