Celina is growing, and so is the city’s budget.
City officials are proposing a $529.1 million budget for fiscal year 2026-27, a more than $146 million increase compared to FY 2025-26, according to city documents.
“Obviously for Celina, population growth is the biggest driver of our budget,” City Manager Robert Ranc said.
To fund the budget, officials are proposing a property tax rate of $0.571677 per $100 of property valuation, which is slightly lower than the FY 2025-26 adopted rate of $0.576401 per $100.
Celina City Council discussed the proposed budget and set a maximum property tax rate of $0.571677 per $100 at an Aug. 11 meeting.
Council will hold a public hearing and vote on the proposed budget and property tax rate on Sept. 8.
A closer look
The average Celina resident will see their monthly property tax bill decrease from $289.95 in FY 2025-26 to $277.48 in FY 2026-27, according to Ranc’s presentation.
While lower tax rates play a role, some of that decrease is due to a decline in the average home taxable value, which fell from $603,648 to $582,454, per his presentation.
Despite the drop in average taxable value, city officials expect to raise 13% more property taxes in FY 2026-27 compared to FY 2025-26 because of new property added to the tax roll, according to the proposed budget.
Even with the slight property tax rate decrease, Celina will still have relatively high rates compared to other North Texas cities.
While Celina is experiencing rapid population growth, city officials are limited in how much they can lower property taxes, Ranc said.
“There’s going to come a day when we can come before City Council and recommend real property tax relief, but while we’re growing at unprecedented levels, we need ... to fund the positions and the capital plans necessary to service our residents,” he said.
Diving in deeper
Celina’s growth also impacts the revenue sources available to city officials, Ranc said.
Nearly one-third of Celina’s general fund revenue comes from development fees, the one-time payments developers make for things like zoning applications and building permits, according to Ranc’s presentation.
As Celina’s retail centers catch up to the demands of a rising population, the city will be able to rely on steadier sources of revenue like sales tax, Ranc said.
“Because we’ve grown so fast, commercial development simply has not had enough time to catch up to our residential growth,” he said.
While Celina’s population grew 119% between 2022 and 2026, the city’s sales tax is only expected to grow 71% from FY 2022-23 to FY 2026-27, according to Ranc’s presentation.
Additionally, much of the city’s sales tax is generated along Preston Road, Ranc said.
Many of the big box retailers on Preston like Lowe’s and Home Depot, which opens in August, received economic incentive agreements for expanding to Celina.
While the city expects to eventually turn a profit on those agreements, for FY 2026-27, roughly half of city’s raw sales tax will go towards paying out development agreements, mainly along Preston Road, Ranc said.
One more thing
Included in the $146 million proposed budget increase are 39 new full-time employees in the general fund:
- 9 firefighters/paramedics
- 10.5 law enforcement officers and support staff
- 1 facilities maintenance technician
- 4 development-related personnel
- 11.5 employees for the Downtown Center opening in February
- 3 service positions for Ousley Park
In addition to hiring for new positions, $1.9 million in the general fund will be used for compensation and benefits for existing employees, including $831,547 to ensure public safety salaries are competitive with other cities in Dallas-Fort Worth, per Ranc’s presentation.
City officials are seeking to hire another 10 new full-time employees for water, wastewater and drainage operations using money from the utility fund, bringing the total number of new full-time employees proposed for FY 2026-27 to 49, per the budget.
Also in the utility fund, water, wastewater and stormwater fees are expected to remain steady compared to last year while the average resident’s monthly solid waste fee is projected to decrease from $21.71 to $19.48, per the presentation.
The bottom line
Based on the average home taxable value, proposed property tax rate and projected utility fees, the average Celina resident’s monthly bill is expected to decrease 3.1% from $468.15 in FY 2025-26 to $453.45 in FY 2026-27.
Council will hold a public hearing and vote on the proposed budget and property tax rate at its regularly scheduled meeting on Sept. 8.
