Houston firefighters receive $650M in checks as part of backpay settlement with city

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The Houston Professional Firefighters Association has received $650 million in settlement money from the City of Houston.

Union President Marty Lancton confirmed the boxes of paper checks were signed for at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, adding that auditors were “working to verify.”

Controller Chris Hollins told ABC13 that the median lump sum payment check an individual firefighter will receive is $165,000, though some will receive up to twice as much.

The checks are backpay for seven years of work without a contract due to a stalemate between the union and the city. Hollins noted that Houston firefighters were underpaid during that time compared to firefighters in other similarly sized cities. When broken down over the seven-year stalemate, Hollins said firefighters are being paid, on average, roughly $20,000 per year.

When considering interest, Hollins estimates it will cost the city more than $1 billion.

“We entered into this agreement without any kind of understanding or any plan of how we’re going to pay for that,” Hollins told ABC13. “At the moment, not only the bond payments that we’re gonna have to pay for throughout this year, and the money for the raises the firefighters are gonna receive this year, those are all being paid for with one-time money from the federal government that came during COVID. That money is running out quickly. And so, we need to right our finances in the city and make sure that our recurring expenses are covered by recurring revenue. And right now, that’s simply not the case.”

When Hollins raised those same concerns before the Houston City Council on Wednesday, Houston Mayor John Whitmire quipped, “I appreciate the job you do, and your personal privilege and political statements are always welcome.”

Hollins insisted, “There is nothing political about looking at the money that’s flowing out of our city, understanding that not enough is coming in and having concerns about it.”

The S&P has put Houston on anegative outlook-meaning there’s at least a one-in-three chance S&P will downgrade Houston’s debt in the next two years.

“Because we are bringing on new expenses without a plan as our fund balance is running out,” Hollins said.

For more updates on this story, follow Shannon Ryan on Facebook, X and Instagram.