Collin County court authorizes 2026 bond sale, approves tax notes and parameters order

Collin County Commissioners Court on Tuesday authorized the sale of bonds for 2026 and approved short-term tax notes to fund county facilities, roads and parks and to cover several county building projects.

Budget and finance director Ms. Harris told the court the proposal covers propositions A through D for county and detention facilities and parks, plus a roads proposition. She said the plan includes $98.7 million for “court and detention facilities” and animal shelter funding left over from prior authorizations and $113.9 million for roads, for a total of $212.6 million of new-money items Ms. Harris summarized as part of a $220.7 million package that also includes tax notes. “The total is 220,700,000.0,” she told the court.

Ms. Harris also described short-term tax notes the county will sell to use available fund balance for building repairs and equipment: “5,000,000 will be used from the current fund balance, and we've already sold it... The shortest term we can sell is 1 year. So we're requesting to sell 5,000,000 in tax notes as a 1 year payoff,” she said, and added the county expects to issue a second set of tax notes with up to a two-year maturity to cover additional facility projects. Hilltop Securities financial advisor Nick Bulash described the parameters order the court was asked to delegate so staff can price the sale once market conditions allow and said the order includes an option to refund callable bonds if refinancing produces sufficient net present value savings.

The court approved the bond package and the tax notes and then adopted a parameters order that sets ceilings the county will not exceed when pricing the bonds: Bulash said the parameters include a maximum long-term interest rate ceiling of 5.25 percent and a maximum principal for the combined authorization of $244,022,000 (the new-money totals plus possible refunding candidates). He told the court refunding candidates total roughly $30 million of callable debt but that current market conditions make about $20 million reasonable to refinance.

Commissioners voted to approve the initial bond and tax-note plan and later passed the parameters order. The first vote on the bond/tax-note package carried 3 to 1; the parameters order passed by the same margin.

Bulash warned the municipal market remains volatile but said recent new-issue supply has been well received. He outlined a tentative timetable that would include rating calls followed by pricing in early July and a closing roughly 30 days after pricing, subject to market conditions and Texas attorney general review.

The court’s action delegates authority to pricing officers to complete the sale within the stated ceilings and conditions; commissioners directed staff to return any amendment if market or statutory conditions change.