During the Aug. 19 city council meeting, Chief Financial Officer Sharen Jackson provided a proposal to adopt a property tax rate of $0.295 per $100 valuation, a drop of 0.01 cent from the 2024-25 fiscal year rate of $0.305 per $100 valuation.
What happened
Council went over the proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget during a work session and in the regular session, Jackson proposed a reduced tax rate.
The next step is the first reading at the Sept. 2 meeting and a final reading would happen Sept. 16, according to the presentation.
Jackson said the cut will reduce city revenues by $1.36 million, while the 20% homestead exemption will reduce revenues by an additional $6.3 million, up from $5.3 million in FY 2024-25, she said.
What else?
The average house appraised value in Southlake as of August 2025 was $1.14 million and the average tax bill will be $2,703, a slight increase from $2,693 compared to FY 2024-25. Despite the lower tax rate, the city will garner additional revenue from increased valuations.
Jackson said that with the decrease of 0.01 cent, the average house will save $91.58 on the tax bill compared to the year prior.
City manager Alison Ortowski presented the FY 2025-26 budget during a work session before the Aug. 19 council meeting. The planned operating expenses are $137.7 million and 63% of those expenses are tied up into two funds: general and utility, according to the presentation.
Stacey S. Black, assistant city manager and senior director of human resources, said the budget proposes a 2% to 4% increase for employees to help the city stay competitive.
Other personnel changes include adding a personal day for employees to use on birthdays or another occasion, a free individual membership to the Champions Club and a milestone service day to celebrate long-term employees.
What they’re saying
“The statement in our budget that we're in the transition from an era of expansion to one of reinvestment, and that's really where we're at,” Mayor Shawn McCaskill said. “We're at that point in our city's history. Next year, we'll celebrate our 70th birthday. There are some infrastructure things that we need to do; some roads, water lines and sewer lines that we want to get ahead of and not wait for them to break or wear out. We want to get those taken care of, to maintain that standard that our residents are used to and deserve.”
