Missouri City officials unanimously approved a $305.87 million budget for fiscal year 2026-27 and voted to increase the city’s tax rate.
The details
The budget, approved at a Sept. 21 City Council meeting, is approximately $18.72 million higher than the FY 2025-26 revised budget and focuses on public safety, filling vacancies and development.
The budget includes:
$7.5 million for facilities, including the future Public Safety Headquarters
$58 million in issuance of debt for capital projects
15 new positions, mainly in public works, but also some in public safety, cybersecurity and human resources
Salary increases for police, fire and non-civil service staff
Of the total budget, $112.66 million will go toward the general fund, which is the city’s primary operating fund and supports various departments and general government services. Major revenue sources include most of the property tax revenue, fees, fines and other taxes.
Per the proposed budget, $84.4 million will go toward the city’s 5-year capital improvement projects, which are long-term, more expensive projects planned by the city that are meant to last at least 20 years.
Some projects include:
New bridge for Bees Passage in Sienna
Water plants and well in Mustang Bayou
Road repairs and improvements
Improvements in Sta-Mo Park and Hunters Glen Trail
What else?
City Council also voted to increase the tax rate to $0.578363 per $100 taxable value, a 1.32% increase from last year’s tax rate of $0.570825, per agenda documents.
This increases taxes by approximately $24 a year, or $2 a month, for the median homestead with a taxable value of $310,147.
Of the tax rate, $0.455029 will go toward the city’s daily operations and $0.123334 will go toward debt.
The city expects to collect a total of about $75.58 million in property taxes, according to budget documents. The extra income generated from the tax rate increase will go toward funding debt service, Deputy Finance Director Cynthia Rushing said.
Council member Joanna Ouderkirk said the city is growing, so it does not need to increase the tax rate by a lot to generate more revenue since there are more people paying taxes.
Zooming out
Fort Bend County lowered its tax rate in early September, and Fort Bend ISD will vote on Sept. 28 to lower its tax rate by 6 cents.
Meanwhile, Sugar Land City Council voted to increase the city's tax rate on Sept. 15.
Looking forward
The FY 2026-27 budget will take effect Oct. 1 and run through Sept. 30, 2027, per agenda documents.
