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Lubbock City Council adopts FY2025–26 budget on first reading and sets tax rate at 47.2191¢
Summary
On first reading the Lubbock City Council adopted an amended FY2025–26 budget and approved a tax rate of 0.472191 per $100 valuation (a 2.2% increase). Council approved a package of revenue moves and modest spending cuts to reduce the originally proposed 3.77% increase.
The Lubbock City Council adopted an amended FY2025–26 budget on first reading Tuesday and set a proposed property tax rate of 0.472191 per $100 valuation, a 2.2% increase over the previous rate.
The action followed public hearings on the operating and capital budgets and extended council debate. Resident Michael Ward urged the council to find additional cuts and questioned transfers from stormwater and other funds. City Manager Jared Atkinson presented the budget and tax-rate options, explaining that the proposed rate of 0.479365 per $100 valuation was built from two parts — maintenance and operations and an interest-and-sinking component — and that a half‑penny shift from I&S into M&O is treated as part of the tax increase under state statutory language. "That is the proposed tax rate," Atkinson told the council as he reviewed the slides.
Councilmembers opened a series of amendments to reduce the tax impact. The Mayor proposed a package that moved $1.7 million from the manager's $2.0 million contingency into general fund revenue, shifted an additional 0.25 percentage point from interest-and-sinking to maintenance-and-operations, reduced the council budget and trimmed some proposed salary increases. Councilmember Dr. Wilson offered the motion that was ultimately amended and approved by a 5–2 vote, producing $1,715,000 in net changes the council directed staff to reflect in the budget ordinance on first reading.
Debate centered on balancing the desire to limit tax increases with the need to preserve funds for ongoing road-bond projects and to retain key staff. Councilmember Collins warned that the one‑time windfall from a previous LPNL transfer that allowed a tax cut last year did not recur this year, and urged fiscal discipline. Other members urged caution about reducing transfers to Market Lubbock and LIDA, which have been identified as economic-development tools and that council members said hold multi‑year obligations.
After the amended budget passed on first reading, Atkinson presented updated tax-rate math tied to the adopted amendments: interest-and-sinking at 0.107586 and maintenance-and-operations at 0.364605, for a combined rate of 0.472191. Councilmember Dr. Wilson moved the tax-rate ordinance on the record and the measure passed 5–2, meeting the supermajority required when a proposed rate exceeds the no‑new‑revenue calculation.
The council did not finalize the ordinance; the meeting served as first reading and a second reading with final votes is scheduled for next Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. City staff will bring back final ordinance language and updated supporting exhibits ahead of that session.
Actions recorded at the meeting included the first-reading adoption of the FY2025–26 budget as amended (motion carried) and a record vote setting the tax rate for 2025 at 0.472191 per $100 valuation (vote 5–2).
