Wylie council hears high-level FY26 budget preview as revenues tighten

City staff presented a high-level preview of the proposed fiscal 2026 budget to the Wylie City Council during a June 11 work session, outlining revenue estimates, proposed equipment financing and possible changes to employee health coverage.

The presentation, delivered by Mr. Parker (staff), laid out certified value estimates and a set of planning assumptions that the city will use while finalizing the budget. Parker said the certified values produced “a big number, a little over 8,000,000,000,” then noted the staff proposal includes a projected 8% increase in sales-tax revenue for FY26 compared with the FY25 budget and an estimated $1.8 million in EMS revenue.

City officials said those revenue assumptions, together with growing base costs and positions now fully staffed, leave the administration with little discretionary money for new recurring requests. Parker told council the city currently shows roughly $250,000 available for new requests once recurring costs are covered and that departments have submitted about $8 million in requests for capital and operational items.

Council members and staff discussed several items that could affect the final tax rate and budget planning: - Trash contract: staff proposed passing a contractor price increase on to residents, raising the monthly garbage rate from $16.76 to $17.60 (an increase of about $0.84). Parker said the city absorbed an 11% increase from the contractor over the past two years and is recommending the rate change "which is basically 84¢." - Health insurance: Court plan renewal quoted a 9.9% increase (about $425,000). Staff said they are evaluating whether to pivot the city’s employer plan to a high-deductible/health-savings-account structure and to alter the employer/employee premium split; Parkerdetailed that moving more employees to a high-deductible plan could reduce the city’s premium exposure. Mayor Pro Tem Gino Malicci and other council members asked for comparisons to peer cities. - Merit and steps: staff proposed a 3% average merit pool for general employees and continuation of the public-safety step plan; a $500,000 mid-year placeholder for public-safety pay adjustments was removed so the base budget can be balanced. - Debt and capital: staff proposed issuing about $14 million in debt next year to fund road projects; separately, staff described a shorter-term debt option (CPFCOs) to acquire equipment with typical terms of roughly 7–10 years. A preliminary equipment list totaled about $5.1 million and included items such as a fire department quint (~$2.5 million), a new ambulance (~$650,000), traffic-cabinet standardization (~$800,000), remaining school-zone flashing lights (~$600,000), GPS/Opticom upgrades (~$900,000), heart monitors (~$300,000), a stormwater camera van (~$170,000) and a dump truck (~$112,000). Parker said financing those items would push the debt side of the tax rate up by roughly 0.5¢ and that any such change would be reflected in the FY27 tax-rate calculation rather than FY26’s base budget. - Stormwater funding: council discussed a proposed stormwater fee and the potential to use that revenue as a bonding source to accelerate about $60 million in stormwater needs identified by staff. Mayor Pro Tem Malicci, Councilman Sid Hoover and others said they favor faster remediation of high-priority problems and asked staff to model options for bonding versus pay-as-you-go funding.

Parker said the city will not recommend drawing down fund balance for FY26; the current forecasted fund balance is roughly 32% (about $22 million). He emphasized that preserving reserves affects the city’s bond rating and borrowing costs. Council members asked staff to return with further detail on health-insurance scenarios, debt timing, and a prioritized list of capital requests.

The city plans additional work sessions and will distribute the full budget book before the July budget meeting. Parker told council the next formal budget steps will follow distribution of the budget book and additional director-level reviews. Several council members thanked staff for the work and urged careful prioritization of projects that would create recurring costs.