Zooming in
At an Aug. 11 meeting, Missouri City staff recommended $257.6 million in expenditures for the fiscal year 2025-26 budget, a 6.02% increase from last year’s budget.
Additionally, city officials recommended maintaining their $0.570825 per $100 property valuation tax rate for the third year in a row, but are shifting one cent from their maintenance and operations budget toward debt. Due to the shift, staff challenged each department to decrease its budget by 5%, City Manager Angel Jones said.
Diving in deeper
The proposed budget includes a $101.3 million general fund, with 38.5% allocated toward public safety services, including $21.3 million to the city’s police department and $17.7 million to the city’s fire and rescue services, per agenda documents.
One of the largest changes from FY 2024-25 is a 54.5% increase in repairs and maintenance, documents show.
Chief Budget & Performance Officer Bertha Alexander said budget decisions were influenced by community engagement, with 112 respondents participating in the city’s June survey. The highest area of focus includes mobility and public safety, including budget items such as:
- $11.2 million for street repairs, sidewalk, flood damages and street lights
- $2.1 million for traffic law enforcement and law enforcement pay
- $745,000 for business maintenance and recruitment
The city was only able to provide funding for seven of the 25 requested new positions, Alexander said. Seven new positions will be allocated to fire and rescue services, with the police department losing one position and neighborhood services gaining one.
What’s next
City Council will hold a public hearing and adopt both the budget and property tax rate Sep. 15, Alexander said.
Other key dates include:
- Aug. 18: A budget presentation video
- Aug. 23, 11 a.m.-noon: Community budget workshop at Missouri City Community Center, located at 1522 Texas Parkway
- Aug. 25: City manager files the proposed budget
