League City council reviews FY2026 budget adjustments, staff outlines $871,858 in changes

League City city council reviewed the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget and the FY2026–2030 capital improvement program at a budget workshop on Aug. 26, 2025, where staff identified three accounting and funding adjustments that together total $871,858.

City staff told the council the adjustments include a $78,908 increase in general fund expenses to move a grant-funded rapid-response medical utility terrain vehicle (UTV) purchase from a donated fund into the general fund, a reduction of about $23,000 in the volunteer fire department donation fund to reflect the city match now budgeted in the general fund, and an $816,373 reclassification recommended by the city’s external auditors to move a debt service payment for a cash-call related to the City of Houston water line along State Highway 3 from the utility debt service fund into utilities operations.

Those changes do not change the net revenue or expense overall, staff said, but the reclassification alters how the numbers roll up in the citywide budget. “The external auditors did not want to see it in our debt service fund for utilities. They actually wanted to see it as an operations cost to the utilities out of water contract purchases,” a City staff member said.

The adjustments were described as the only changes since the previous workshop. Staff presented the changes ahead of a public hearing and the first reading of the FY2026 budget ordinance scheduled later in the council’s meeting agenda.

The workshop also included public comments urging ongoing support for the League City Public Library. Peggy Zayler, 1802 Rampart, said the library serves about 3,000 visitors weekly and roughly 500 patrons daily, and asked councilmembers to consider the library when finalizing budget decisions. Zayler said the library received a $12,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in 2024 and that about $3,000 in local effort helped leverage roughly $200,000 in online resources for patrons.

Council discussion during the workshop praised staff for completing a budget that remains below the no-new-revenue rate while increasing funding for public safety and making investments in the capital improvement program. Councilmembers also noted a recent, larger-than-anticipated increase in the senior homestead exemption and discussed a 5.5% across-the-board pay adjustment for officers referenced during the meeting. One councilmember asked whether the document the council would vote on later that evening should be considered final; staff did not describe any pending substantive changes beyond those presented.

No formal vote on the budget was recorded in the workshop transcript; the council planned a public hearing and the first reading of the budget ordinance later in the meeting agenda.

The workshop lasted roughly 45 minutes before adjournment; the next formal step in the budget process recorded in the transcript is the scheduled public hearing and first reading of the FY2026 budget ordinance.