An appellate court has reversed a 2023 ruling in favor of the city of Houston regarding a voter-approved drainage fee. The plaintiffs argued that the city council had not allocated the drainage fund according to the city charter. The court agreed and ruled that the city had calculated the fee “legally incorrectly.” The ruling undoes a previous trial court judgment and stems from a lawsuit filed in 2019. The fee was intended for flood mitigation and drainage projects, but a 2018 report found that only a small portion of tax revenues were spent on those purposes.