Bryan City Council voted to adopt the city’s proposed $569 million fiscal year 2026-27 budget and the first reading of its unchanged property tax rate at its Sept. 8 meeting.
What you need to know
The budget for the city of Bryan has steadily increased every year since 2020, according to the city. Bryan Mayor Bobby Gutierrez said the city attributes the rising budgets to inflation, increasing costs for materials and other economic factors.
As previously reported by Community Impact, the city of Bryan has already approved multiple budgets for city agencies leading up to the approval of the overall city budget for FY27.
The FY2027 budget, the largest of the decade so far, was approved unanimously by the council after multiple hearings. Mayor Gutierrez said he was thankful to the city's financial team for its hard work and multiple thoughtful presentations.
A closer look
The city has had the same property tax rate of $0.624000 per $100 valuation since 2022. With the steadily rising value of property in Bryan, the council said raising taxes wouldn’t be necessary.
During the hearing, however, Mayor Gutierrez asked Interim Chief Financial Officer Alicia Kenney if it was possible to lower the tax rate without a credit or financial risk. Kenney said yes, but the city would be at risk of running out of spendable cash in the near future.
Mayor Gutierrez was joined by Council member Ray Arrington in an attempt to lower the tax rate to $0.6235, but the motion failed. Council members Kevin Boriskie and Marca Ewers-Shurtleff said they were nervous about lowering the rate.
"I really admire where you're coming from, but once we lower it, we can never get it back up," Ewers-Shurtleff said.
What's next
The first reading of the tax rate was unanimously approved by the council, and the second and final reading is scheduled for Sept. 15.
The approved budget will go into effect on Oct. 1, which is the start of the fiscal year for the city. According to agenda material, the funds will be used for maintenance and operation of facilities, activities and city improvements.
