Killeen council amends FY2025 budget to carry forward commitments; updates comprehensive plan implementation matrix

The Killeen City Council on Jan. 21 adopted an ordinance amending the FY2025 budget to carry forward prior-year encumbrances and grant-related items, and separately approved amendments to the city’s comprehensive plan implementation matrix to update target dates and responsible departments. Both ordinances passed 6-0 following public hearings.

Finance staff described the budget amendment as a technical update to ensure funds already committed in fiscal year 2024 remain available for goods and services delivered later. “You are correct. These are committed funds from fiscal year '20 '20 '4 that, need to be rolled over because we did not spend the last year for 1 or 2 reasons,” Miss Tanglin told the council, adding that some items are delayed because goods or services have not yet been delivered and that ARPA funds are committed and must be spent by December 2026.

The presentation listed multiple fund carryforwards and line-item amounts. Examples included a general-fund PO carryforward of $108,000, an ARPA non-CIP carryforward of $270,000, animal-services equipment for $210,000, Tulsa Hartford Community Center equipment for $96,000, and a PFC carryforward of $65,000. Enterprise and capital items included $554,000 in water and sewer PO carryforwards and $159,000 in information-technology carryforwards. The staff recommendation was to adopt the ordinance to permit departments to spend funds already committed in FY2024.

During public comment residents asked for additional transparency and detail about how carryforward and ARPA funds were allocated. Melissa Brown criticized portions of the budget and raised concerns that some projects should prioritize sewer repairs in North Killeen over other spending; she said, “So are we so financially stressed that we are now putting our city up for sale?” after earlier criticizing naming-rights proposals. Sean Price and other residents asked for clearer disclosure of the city’s annual debt-service costs and questioned whether carryforward items were truly unspent or already encumbered. In response, Miss Tanglin and City Manager Cagle said the carried-forward amounts are committed for prior-year approved purchases or projects and are not open discretionary funds.

On the comprehensive plan, Development Services presented amendments to the implementation matrix—changes staff described as “minor adjustments” to timelines and responsible departments following a departmental review. The Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed the amendments on Dec. 9 and recommended approval 8-0. Ms. Mescher told the council the amendment is meant to “accurately reflect current progress and provide a realistic target date for completion of each item,” and noted about 66 percent of implementation items were in progress or complete.

Several public commenters urged the council to adhere more strictly to the original plan and to improve how the city reports progress. The council and staff pointed to an online dashboard (killeen2040.com) that updates implementation status quarterly and said staff will consider additional year-over-year reporting and more visible public communication.

Council approved the budget-amendment ordinance (PH 25-003) and the comprehensive-plan amendment (PH 25-004) by 6-0 votes; staff will proceed to execute the carryforwards and update the implementation matrix as adopted.