José Luis Martínez

6 days ago | houstonlanding.org | José Luis Martínez |Jose Martinez |José Martinez |Jose Martínez

Receipts is a weekly spotlight on how the city of Houston and Harris County spend your tax money, with a focus on the everyday things most residents may take for granted. Got something you want us to look at? Email José at [email protected]. “It takes money to make money,” the saying goes. And when it comes to local government, it takes money to spend money.

1 week ago | houstonlanding.org | José Luis Martínez |Jose Martinez |José Martinez |Jose Martínez |Hanna Holthaus

Houston employees used city-issued credit cards to buy more than $41 million worth of goods in the past two years, but failed to document what was purchased in more than half of those transactions. In tens of thousands of cases, employees failed to include any description of what they purchased. In others, employees simply used “product” or even “generic product” to describe what they bought.

1 week ago | houstonlanding.org | José Luis Martínez |Jose Martinez |José Martinez |Jose Martínez

Receipts is a weekly spotlight on how the city of Houston and Harris County spend your tax money, with a focus on the everyday things most residents may take for granted. Got something you want us to look at? Email José at [email protected]. You’re zooming down the Sam Houston Tollway, a camera light flashes overhead as you pass through the toll plaza and you’re charged $1.75. You not only paid to use the road, you just paid to take cars across the Houston Ship Channel on the Lynchburg Ferry.

2 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | José Luis Martínez |Jose Martinez |José Martinez |Jose Martínez

Taking care of Houston’s parks and trails is nothing even remotely like a weekend in the burbs, where lawn crews and homeowners mow and trim for a few hours and call it a day. Upkeep of the city’s 382 parks and more than 190 miles of trails is a seven-day-a-week job performed by roughly 240 workers. The annual cost: $25.5 million.

3 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | José Luis Martínez |Jose Martinez |José Martinez |Jose Martínez

The Houston Fire Department graduated 31 academy cadets in February, swelling its ranks to more than 4,000 firefighters. Their first task? Picking up more than two dozen pieces of heavy – and costly – protective clothing and gear.  How costly? About $21,756. Per firefighter. The clothing and equipment has to be able to withstand the most extreme temperatures while remaining durable for repeated use. That’s why the bunker coat, for example, costs $1,400.