Parker County releases bare-bones FY2025–26 budget, proposes slight tax-rate cut

Chair opened the court’s special budget session at 9:01 a.m. Tuesday and asked county budget staff to present the judge’s proposed FY2025–26 general fund budget. Brianna, a county staff member who led the review, said the judge’s proposal was filed Aug. 8, posted with the County Clerk and on the county website, and that a required public hearing is scheduled for Aug. 25 during Commissioner’s Court.

Brianna explained the county’s tax rate is divided into three pieces — General Fund maintenance and operations, interest and sinking (debt service), and the road and bridge tax — and that the judge’s proposed budget uses the no-new-revenue calculation. “So again, our tax rate is broken into 3 different pieces… the proposed rate that was used in the judge's proposed budget is the same as the no new revenue rate,” she said, and added the proposed total rate is 0.285070, a decline of about 1.5¢ from the prior year. Under that rate and a 98.75% collection assumption, staff projected general-fund M&O receipts of roughly $51.6 million, debt-service receipts of about $16.3 million, and road-and-bridge receipts near $15.9 million.

Staff emphasized the proposed $83.7 million figure is a conservative “bare-bones” budget that includes salaries, benefits and routine operating increases but excludes capital projects, previously approved rollovers and any county-wide cost-of-living adjustments. Brianna told the court that the adopted FY2025 budget was $86.5 million (with nearly $8.7 million drawn from fund balance) and that the proposed budget begins with a contingency of roughly $2.8 million. She warned that certified rolls, litigation, and other adjustments could still change the revenue picture before final adoption.