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Council reviews preliminary 2026–27 budget as tax-rate numbers remain uncertified
Summary
Willow Park council held a budget workshop to review a preliminary 2026–27 draft. Staff warned certified property values and a final M&O tax rate were not yet available, flagged a roughly $360,000 gap in the draft, and outlined department-level changes and uncertainties—most notably for wastewater operations and legal fees.
The Willow Park City Council met in a Saturday budget workshop to review a preliminary draft of the 2026–27 budget and to hear department-by-department proposals from staff presenters Michelle Gelker and Jake Weber.
Michelle Gelker told the council the numbers are provisional because certified property values that determine the maintenance and operations tax rate were not yet available. “We do not have our certified values, for tax rate until next Friday,” she said, cautioning that many line items are placeholders and will change once values are received.
City staff proposed a conservative sales-tax projection of $2,300,000 for the coming year, and said the administration will start assigning legal fees directly to the departments that incur them rather than centralizing those costs. Gelker noted a $50,000 allocation placed in administration to better track attorney costs that were previously billed to a single legislative line.
Enterprise funds were presented with a break-even goal. Jake Weber and finance staff said water revenue projections were tempered from earlier targets because of seasonal impacts and billing timing; impact fees will remain restricted for capital projects such as the West Bankhead utility expansion. The wastewater forecast carries particular uncertainty: staff said they do not yet know the plant’s operating chemical, electricity or other ongoing costs until the new system runs.
Council members pressed staff on a roughly $360,000 gap in the draft budget and asked where discretionary cuts could be made if revenues fall short. Staff emphasized there are few large discretionary line items left to trim without cutting core services and that options would include deferring projects or reshuffling funds; raising the tax rate was noted only as a last resort.
No formal votes were taken on the budget at the workshop. Staff said they expect certified property values soon and will return with refined numbers; next procedural steps include updating the draft after certification and presenting a proposal for formal review and adoption at a future meeting.
