Rio Grande City adopts 2025-26 budget, sets 0.53 tax rate and approves $3.2M water-meter financing

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas — The Rio Grande City Commission on Sept. 17 approved the city’s fiscal 2025-26 budget, set a property tax rate of 0.53 per $100 valuation and approved financing for a proposed $3.2 million water meter replacement project.

City staff presented the second reading of the budget and said the spending plan shows a $266,000 surplus for the year beginning Oct. 1, 2025. The commission later adopted an ordinance setting a property tax rate of 0.53 — a maintenance-and-operations rate of 0.393113 and an interest-and-sinking rate of 0.136887 — and approved issuance of combination tax and revenue certificates of obligation to support the water project.

The budget presentation identified several revenue and expense items that helped produce the projected surplus. City staff said the budget counts anticipated proceeds from the sale of a portion of St. Ives land estimated at $750,000 and credits savings from an internal reorganization that merged public works with utilities, which staff said saved the city…