City of Commerce proposes $16.2 million fiscal 2026 budget, recommends 83¢ property tax rate

A city staff member speaking on the Commerce Connect podcast said the City of Commerce’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget totals $16,224,760.56 and that the city is proposing a property tax rate of 83¢ per $100 valuation to help fund the plan.

The staff member said the budget covers the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2025, and runs through September 2026 and that the city scheduled public hearings and council meetings in September to review the proposal. "We are a service organization," the staff member said, adding: "Every dollar we spend is somebody else's dollar."

The nut graf: The proposal distributes spending across public safety, infrastructure, quality-of-life programs and administrative support; the city framed the plan as an effort to maintain core services while spreading costs across taxes and fees. Officials said roughly 35% of general-fund revenue is expected from taxes, with property tax the largest single source.

At the top of the budget, public safety is proposed to account for 29.3% of total expenditures, or $4,748,916. The staff member broke that category into department figures: police at about $2,100,000 and fire at about $2,200,000, with smaller line items for animal control ($301,000), municipal court ($78,000) and emergency management ($50,000).

Public infrastructure is the largest category in the proposal at roughly $8,349,046 (about 51% of the proposed budget). Specific infrastructure line items given in the podcast include public works (streets and stormwater) at $696,000; water production at $2,700,000; distribution and collection (underground piping) at about $1,617,000; the wastewater treatment plant at $1,600,000; solid waste at $1,360,000; and a street maintenance program proposed at $223,000.

Quality-of-life and community services are listed at about 7.6% of the total budget, $1,240,000. The staff member outlined department-level amounts: community development about $253,000; parks and recreation about $569,000; economic development staffing at $105,617; code enforcement about $250,000; and a $61,000 annual city contribution to a locally run nonprofit library that operates the building the city owns.

Administrative overhead is proposed at 11.6% of the total budget, $1,886,000. The staff member said about half of that overhead is allocated to the public-utility function rather than the general fund.

On revenue, the proposed general fund budget is $8,572,088. The staff member said roughly 35% of general-fund revenue is expected from taxes (about $6,033,900). Tax revenue sources described in the podcast include franchise taxes (roughly $525,000 from utilities operating in city rights-of-way), sales tax receipts, and property tax. The staff member said the proposed property tax levy for maintenance and operations is $3,900,000.

The staff member discussed the tax-rate calculation process: last year’s tax rate was 79¢ per $100 valuation, the state-calculated "no-new-revenue" rate for the current year is 82¢ per $100, and the city is proposing 83¢ per $100. The podcast noted the appraisal district is reporting a lower total market valuation for the city this year, which affects the no-new-revenue calculation and pushes the comparable rates higher.

The staff member also described the city’s taxable base and exemptions: the podcast said the city’s total market value is about $1.6 billion and that roughly 55% of that value is held by tax-exempt entities (noted by the staff member as including state-held property), leaving about 45% of total valuation as the taxable base that supports local property tax revenue.

No formal council votes or ordinance adoptions were recorded in the podcast; the episode presents the staff’s overview of the proposed budget and invites public review at the scheduled hearings. The staff member said there will be additional podcast episodes and encouraged attendance at the council meetings to comment on the proposal.

Ending: The staff member closed by reiterating the city’s stated vision — to be "a vibrant, self-sustaining community" that preserves a rural feel while providing services — and said the proposed budget is intended to support that goal. The podcast gave the city website, www.commercetx.org, as the location to find the full proposed budget and meeting notices.