City Manager Holly presented a balanced fiscal 2025–26 budget to the La Marque City Council on Monday and recommended keeping the city's property tax rate at 0.398501. Council adopted that rate by voice vote after a daylong budget workshop.

Holly told the council that the budget as presented balances general and utility funds and reflects cuts made by the city's largest departments to meet the constraint of the current tax rate. "The tax rate that we're asking you to set is 0.398501, which is your current tax rate," she said during the workshop.

The budget documents that Holly reviewed show general fund revenues estimated at about $23.62 million and general fund expenditures at about $23.52 million, leaving an available buffer of roughly $99,000 in the presentation. The utility fund was presented with approximately $10.9 million in revenue and $10.8 million in expenditures. Holly said the utility fund will require further rate study in January because of expected debt service payments, including a $600,000 payment to the Texas Water Development Board.

Holly and department heads described cuts made to bring the budget into balance at the existing tax rate. Fire Chief Merriman told the council his department trimmed overtime and other operating costs and believes it can meet the service level in the proposed budget without compromising emergency response. "We cut almost $150,000 out of [overtime]," Merriman said in describing department reductions.

Public works Director Shannon Breaux (referred to in the meeting as Mr. Breaux) summarized the streets, parks and facilities cuts as largely operational: changes to equipment purchasing and better tracking of fuel and supplies, reduced rentals and more conservative purchases for uniform and tools. He said the department did not cut payroll or current staff and still plans to fill approved positions as hiring allows.

Council held a public comment period at the start of the meeting. Hailey Winkelman, a resident who registered to speak remotely, urged council to approve a bond to replace the city's municipal-court and public-safety building, calling the current building "100% unsafe." She cited a $17.5 million number for a new building and described the estimated homeowner impact as a modest per-year tax change per $100,000 of valuation.

After discussion, the council voted by voice to adopt a tax rate of 0.398501 — the same rate the city carried into the workshop — which the city secretary said will raise slightly more revenue than last year because of growth in appraised property values and new construction in La Marque. The clerk calculated that, as presented, the adopted rate equated to roughly a 0.283591% increase in tax revenue over last year; officials stressed this is a revenue change driven by higher valuations and additional taxable property, not an increase in the tax rate itself.

What's next: Holly said staff will return with an ordinance to formally adopt the budget and continue to work with departments on fee studies and any required budget amendments.