McKinney city staff members are proposing some cuts to the proposed fiscal year 2026-27 budget in order to maintain the same property tax rate as last year.
The full story
McKinney City Council members are expected to consider and vote Sept. 1 on the budget and property tax rate, according to a city document. The proposed budget totals $880 million and includes funding for general operations, water and wastewater services, and more.
City staff proposed a property tax rate of $0.417876 per $100 valuation during an Aug. 7 workshop. At the time, council members requested that staff look at ways to maintain last year's lower tax rate of $0.412284 per $100 valuation.
At an Aug. 18 council meeting, Chief Financial Officer Mark Holloway reviewed options to reduce up to $1.2 million in expenses if council members were to approve the same tax rate as last fiscal year.
“We talked about some different things at that session,” Holloway said. “We went back and sharpened our pencils and we came up with some ideas.”
The details
The first idea was to reduce expenses in the city’s general operating budget by about $1.2 million, Holloway said. That would come from reductions in line-item costs, capital equipment replacement costs and supplemental items, according to a staff presentation.
- $200,000 reduction in line items
- $500,000 reduction in the city’s capital equipment replacement fund
- $500,000 reduction in proposed supplemental items
City staff would also need to request a $1 million transfer from the McKinney Community Development Corporation, according to the presentation. City staff will coordinate with MCDC regarding the transfer, Holloway said.
“This would result in a balanced general fund budget of about $246.5 million once you take the $1.2 million in reduction and the additional $1 million of revenue,” he said.
The reductions and transfer would cover an estimated $2.2 million in reduced property tax revenue if the city kept the same tax rate as last year, according to the presentation.
