Coppell staff presents balanced FY2026 budget, proposes slight tax-rate cut amid 6.6% valuation growth

City staff on Monday presented the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget to the Coppell City Council and outlined how certified 2025 property values, staff reductions and one-time fund-balance uses shape the plan. The presentation, led by Kim, the city budget presenter, included a proposed tax rate of 0.444976 and an updated estimate that the average home receiving a homestead exemption would see the city's portion of its bill rise about $119 for the year.

The presentation matters because certified taxable values rose about 6.61% for tax year 2025, increasing the tax base to roughly $12.5 billion, and staff projected the plan must balance lower allowable property-tax revenue growth with rising costs. "The proposed tax rate is the 0.444976," Kim said, adding the rate is roughly 1.4 pennies less than the current 0.458632. She also said the proposed maintenance-and-operations revenue is about $47 million, roughly a 3.4% increase in property tax revenue compared with the current year.

Kim told the council the proposed budget is balanced in the technical sense — revenues plus proposed use of fund balance equal or exceed expenditures — and that it assumes constrained property-tax revenue growth under state law commonly referred to in the presentation as SB2. "Yes. I'm referring to what was referred to when legislation passed as SB2," Kim said, explaining the cap limits property-tax revenue growth to 3.499% and creates an "Austin Gap" between projected expenditures and allowable revenue. To narrow that gap,…