Denton council reviews plan to move expiring economic-development incentives into Catalyst Fund

Christine Taylor, Denton’s assistant city manager, presented a proposal at the May 6 Denton City Council work session to redirect budgeted portions of expiring economic-development incentives to the city’s Catalyst Fund.

Taylor said the goal is to create a sustainable, recurring funding source by taking the portion of incentives that had been budgeted in the general fund and, once those incentives expire, rolling that budgeted amount into the Catalyst Fund subject to annual budget review. “Staff’s recommendation is to relocate expiring economic development incentives to the Catalyst Fund,” she said.

The Catalyst Fund was created in 2022 and had an ending fund balance of about $5,300,000 in the most recent fiscal year, Taylor said. The fund was initially seeded with a one-time transfer of $2,000,000 from utility (water and…