Houston City Controller Ronald C. Green is holding a fundraiser this evening, with the top donor status going to those who chip in $5,000. The event is being hosted by failed mayoral candidate Peter Brown, with attendees to include local engineers, builders, and real estate honchos.

We’re told by Lone Star Strategies, which is putting together the event at La Griglia in River Oaks, that this is to pay off campaign debt from the controller’s race in the fall.

Such events are standard in politics, and it’s not hard to believe Green rang up some debt in a race that went to a December runoff against M.J. Kahn.

“This event tonight, he actually does two standard events post-election,” said Chris Brown, a spokesman from Green’s office. “It’s kind of a late train, if you will, people who didn’t get a chance to visit with him are going to be coming tonight."

Another event closer to St. Patrick’s Day will be similar, the spokesman said.

Speaking of debt, whatever happened with Green's personal debt issues? We broke a story last fall about his failure to pay $100,000+ in federal income taxes, then subsequently discovered that Green also failed to file the appropriate franchise tax records, which caused his law firm at the time to lose its state charter.

At the time, Green said he was disputing the Internal Revenue Service's figures for his income taxes, and that the franchise tax records were from an old corporation no longer in use. An opponent said Green's handling of his personal finances reflected poorly on his ability to handle the city's.

Green told us in October that he hoped to have the matter of the income tax debt resolved in "30 to 45 days."

This is the IRS we're talking about, right? The agency with a tax code that runs, depending on which politician you ask, several times longer than the Bible?

Believably, the tax debt is not quite resolved.

“I know they were working to resolve that and am told that any day it will be taken care of,” Brown, the spokesman, said.