The Jacksonville City Council adopted the 202526 budget and an accompanying tax rate of $0.63763 per $100 valuation at its Sept. 9 meeting at City Hall.

City Manager (presenter) told the council the budget was prepared on a flat tax rate and reflects a 5.26% increase in net taxable value from the prior year; staff estimated the change in valuations would yield roughly $343,416 in additional property-tax revenue. Council voted 50 to adopt the ordinance approving the budget and later voted 50 to adopt the tax-rate ordinance.

The budget document groups spending into five categories staff identified as people, programs, equipment, projects and planning. Key changes cited by the city manager include funding for one additional position (a traffic-dedicated police officer), continuation of public-safety step plans and a 2% across-the-board pay increase. The budget raises starting pay for full-time city positions to $15 an hour and proposes increasing the employer contribution to Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) to 7% from the city's prior rate.

Staff also recommended a move to third-party short-term disability coverage (replacing the city's internal 'sick bank'), continuation of healthcare under Blue Cross Blue Shield, and expanded fleet management tools: GPS tracking and diagnostic systems for roughly 75 vehicles and pieces of equipment. The manager said a new communications/branding contract (creation/branding firm) would cost about $36,000 per year split among the general fund, the utility fund and the hotel-occupancy fund.

Capital and project spending in the budget include renovations to Fire Station 2, continued work on the Canada Street complete-street project (concrete streets, water and sewer replacement and sidewalks), rehabilitation of an elevated storage tank on North Fulton, several sanitary-sewer projects including planning work for doubling wastewater plant capacity, and parks and recreation and water/wastewater master planning. The city manager said some large multi-year projects were re-sequenced in the FY26 budget to better match anticipated spend schedules.

Councilman Tim McCray moved to adopt the budget ordinance; Councilwoman Mindy Gallick seconded. The recorded vote for the budget ordinance was: Rob Goen, yes; Tim McCray, yes; Randy Gore, yes; Letitia Horace, yes; Mindy Gallick, yes. The motion passed 50.

For the tax rate, Mayor Pro Tem Tim McCray moved to set the property tax rate at $0.63763 per $100 valuation, which staff said effectively raised maintenance-and-operations revenue compared with last year. Councilman Rob Goen seconded. The roll-call vote was identical to the budget vote: five yeses, zero nays; the tax-rate ordinance passed.

The city manager told council that an average homestead value used in the presentation rose by roughly 8.79%, yielding an illustrative increase in the city portion of the tax bill of about $86.74 per year on the sample property cited ($154,800 to $168,405). Staff also said, on the slide, that a one-cent change in the tax rate typically produces about $107,000 in revenue.

Council and staff said they had engaged a sales-tax consultant to analyze collections and identify opportunities to increase sales-tax revenue and relieve pressure on property taxes. The manager said the utility fund and debt service fund meet internal fund-balance policy targets and that the proposed general-fund ending balance would exceed the city's 20% target.

The council vote completed both formal actions at the Sept. 9 meeting; the manager said staff would proceed with project scheduling and contract work outlined in the adopted budget.