Denton City Council will vote Sept. 22 on a $2.22 billion budget and lower property tax rate laid out by city staff after it holds a public hearing Sept. 15 on the subjects.
What’s happening?
The proposed budget was presented at the Aug. 8 work session and shows a balanced budget for fiscal year 2026-27. The Sept. 15 public hearing will allow for public feedback on the proposed budget and lower property tax rate before council members vote on the items one week later at their regular meeting.
The budget is structured across five major pillars that support day-to-day operations, or the general fund, self-sustaining public utilities, internal city operations, restricted-use accounts and long-term capital investments, according to a presentation from Chief Strategic Officer Aimee Kaslik.
The general fund, enterprise fund for public utilities, internal services and special revenues will equal roughly $952.35 million. The remainder of the $2.2 billion budget represents multi-year capital improvement accounts, prior bond balances being spent down and newly proposed debt issuances, including $291.3 million from the 2023 bond.
“This budget was built very intentionally,” interim city manager Cassey Ogden said. “My No. 1 priority was focusing on investing in our staff and employees while also maintaining service levels for residents, planning for growth [and] stabilizing our long-term financial health.”
Personnel Services make up the vast majority (67.57%) of the general fund’s budget. This includes up to a 2.5% merit increase for general government employees, a one-time cost-of-living adjustment and a 3% base increase for fire department personnel.
Chief Financial Officer Matt Hamilton also proposed reducing the current bond issuance of $69.93 million to $5.8 million with an extended timeline, according to previous reporting.
The result would smooth out the tax rate impact in the long run, and Hamilton said that anything the city plans to do for the budget process in 2027 will be affected by the 2028 tax rate, which is expected to increase.
Zooming in
Council members will also vote on a property tax rate of $0.548485 per $100 property valuation, which is a 7.88% decrease from the previous year’s tax rate of $0.595420 per $100 valuation, according to Kaslik’s presentation.
Kaslik said the average property valuation for a home in Denton, which is currently about $383,000, would see a decrease of $203 annually in its property tax bill.
Council member Joe Holland said he was impressed with the decrease but worried that this will have a negative impact on next fiscal year’s budget from the depreciation of business personal property.
“What scares me about that is the ricochet effect that might have next budget year,” he said.
Mayor Chris Watts agreed with Holland and said this is a result of data centers and their business personal property, even though it provided additional revenue for this fiscal year.
“This is going to be happening all over the state," Watts said to Holland. “You’re absolutely right that come next year, as these depreciate ... we’re not going to necessarily see this the whole time.”
Denton currently has two data centers operating or planned for operation, according to previous reporting.
What’s next?
The budget must be approved before Sept. 30, since the 2026-27 fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2027.
