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Bastrop council adopts balanced 2025–26 budget amid questions about prior ARPA allocations
Summary
Mayor Mary Moore presented a balanced 2025–26 general fund budget; council approved technical amendments and a resolution moving line items. During discussion council members pressed staff about earlier American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocations, a $150,000 demolition line and whether prior administration changes were properly documented.
Mayor Mary Moore presented a balanced budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026, and the Bastrop City Council approved a set of non‑net amendments moving money between line items on a voice vote Thursday.
The mayor said the adopted budget reduces general fund expense from the previous administration’s proposals and restores local staffing priorities. “My budget request cut that down to $14,300,000,” Moore said, adding the city inherited one‑time revenues and debt obligations that require follow‑up. “On 07/01/2025, I began my work as mayor. There was not a proper transition between administrations.”
Why it matters: council members praised the work to present a balanced operating budget after years of higher projected expenses, but several members pressed staff for clearer accounting of prior ARPA allocations and for better transparency going forward.
Council discussed and approved Resolution 25‑2110, described by staff as amendments to the general fund summary of expenditures that shift money between object categories without changing the bottom line. Rick Smith, finance staff, told the council the adjustments “do not change the bottom line as far as the projected amount of revenue and then projected amount of expenditures. This just simply moves funding between line items.” The council approved the amendments by voice vote; the clerk recorded the motion as carried.
During public and council discussion, members repeatedly raised a previously allocated $150,000 demolition line that appears on earlier paperwork but was not present in readily available adopted budget documents. Councilmember D. Green pressed staff for clarity, saying the number had been shown on prior allocation lists and asking how a line originally in an adopted budget could “be removed from the city council” without council action. Finance staff said records are incomplete and that the finance committee and staff will reconcile bank statements and prior documents to account for the discrepancy.
Council members also questioned how ARPA funds were shown in the city’s books. The finance presentation and follow‑up by staff explained that some ARPA allocations were recorded in the general fund and that “means‑of‑finance swaps” were used in places to align federal eligible uses with general‑fund expenditures; staff said those swaps and reporting steps complicated how the figures appear in the adopted budget. Councilmember Green said repeated reconciling and clearer presentation are needed: “When I look back, when I use the word trickery, I really know what I’m talking about…we all left with one impression as to what we passed.”
Council repeatedly directed the administration to present quarterly budget reviews going forward and to segregate one‑time grant and federal funds into special revenue accounts so future budgets show those dollars separately. Finance staff said the administration will present a quarterly review beginning in the first quarter and will move special or one‑time revenue into a separate “special revenue” budget code.
Ending: Council accepted the finance report and adopted the amendments on a voice vote. Staff said they will return with reconciled records and a plan for quarterly reporting and for locating the missing documentation tied to prior ARPA allocations and the $150,000 demolition line.
