Katy’s property tax rate is expected to stay the same as city officials work to finalize the fiscal year 2025-26 budget.

What happened?

City staff have proposed a $74.54 million budget for FY 2025-26, a 5.2% decrease from last year’s budget.

Additionally, council proposed maintaining its tax rate at $0.425 per $100 valuation for the second consecutive year. The rate is below the no-new-revenue rate of $0.430707 per $100 valuation, according to budget documents.

Despite the lack of change, city officials said they expect tax revenue to increase by 7.99% from FY 2024-25 due to the influx of new properties and increasing property valuations.

Diving in deeper

The budget includes $55.04 million toward the city’s general fund, with 47.01% allocated to public safety services, including $14.47 million for the police department and $11.41 million for the fire department.

Two of the largest changes from FY 2024-25 include a 76.17% increase in information technology and a 45.19% decrease in the city’s contingency fund, documents show.

What else?

The budget also lays out $5.56 million in capital improvement investments for FY 2025-26, including:

• $1.8 million for an Impel Quint firetruck
• $1.5 million for substations at Texas Heritage Marketplace
• $438,800 for four new police Tahoes
• $110,000 for two new fire department vehicles

An additional $1.45 million for improvement projects will be funded by the city's enterprise fund, which is paid for by the city's water utility fees. Projects include an $800,000 generator and lift pumps for Plant 3 and $202,550 for water meter replacement.

What’s next?

The city will hold a public hearing for the proposed budget Sept. 8 and the tax rate Sept. 22. Both hearings will take place at 6:30 p.m. at Katy City Hall, located at 901 Ave. C.

The budget and tax rate will be adopted at the Sept. 22 meeting following the hearing, according to budget documents.