McAlester council adopts 2025–26 budget, corrects Midtown TIF boundary, accepts expo lands and continues city manager’s contract

McAlester — The McAlester City Council on Friday, June 27, adopted the city’s fiscal 2025–26 budget, approved a correction to the legal description of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District No. 2 (Midtown), accepted a division of lands from the Pittsburg County Expo Authority, approved a correction to police pay-scale paperwork effective July 1, 2025, and voted to continue the city manager’s contract following an executive session.

The votes took place during a noon special meeting that included a public hearing on the budget (with no members of the public speaking during the hearing), a review of a corrected TIF legal description, and an executive session on personnel. The city characterized the TIF action as a technical correction to a prior project plan and said the assessor’s office is using the corrected description.

The budget: The council adopted an ordinance to approve the City of McAlester budget for fiscal year 2025–26 and also approved an emergency clause so the ordinance takes effect immediately. Council members recorded unanimous votes for both the budget ordinance and the emergency clause. The council received a staff presentation confirming that the budget in the packet matched prior public notices and that the proposed spending plan is slightly smaller than last year’s and reflects a conservative approach. A resident, Steve Belcher, asked the council to note that Councilor Stone arrived at 12:03 p.m.; the council recorded Stone’s vote as yes when the roll was called.

The…