Overview of McKinney's FY26 Budget Session

The city of McKinney held its annual budget session in August for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins in October. The August 8th meeting can be watched here. The public input on the budget continues at the next City Council meeting on September 2nd. 

Here is the Ad Valorem summary blurb:

"The City Council adopted a $.415513 tax rate per $100 of property valuation for the current 2024-25 fiscal year, which was just over 1 cent lower than the fiscal year 2023-24 rate. With tax base growth in new construction of $1.7 billion and increases in existing property values of 5.0%, the estimated taxable value will grow from approximately $39.6 billion in fiscal year 2024-25 to $43.4 billion in fiscal year 2025-26. The average market home value will grow from $574,579 in fiscal year 2024-25 to $578,991 in fiscal year 2025-26. This budget proposes to lower the tax rate to $0.412284."

This is what goes into (and not into) the no new revenue tax rate, see pg 95 of the budget:

1.     Police/Fire – 5 new police and 5 new fire. I’m not sure if that is enough or just adequate. No matter what survey, residents rate public safety at the top of their budget priorities. See details here.

2.      TIRZ 1 (downtown) – at least they are using funds to pay for fire suppression in the downtown zone and not using the general fund.

3.      TIRZ 2 (airport) – they will be moving less from the operating fund to airport construction fund to cover the costs of the commercial airport and the 9 people they will be hiring to work there.

4.      Airport – expecting operational losses for the first 3-4 years. Talked briefly about why there is ad valorem loss for the airport in 2024: depreciations, relocations, a hangar out of commission, etc. No questions on it.

5.    Low-income/affordable housing – Absolutely NO strategy for the past 5+ years. They want to develop one. This is after years of throwing money, consultants, and newly found tools at the problem. City Council continues to push co-developments with multifamily developers and the MHFC (McKinney Housing Finance Corporation).

A newer entity, the McKinney Public Facility Corporation (MPFC), was established a couple of years ago, and a developer was selected without competitive bidding to construct additional apartments. The City Council elected itself to this board.

There will be no formal evaluation of any low-income/affordable housing for single-family housing using the newly created Community Land Trust (CLT). I don't even see an item for the CLT in the budget. 

The city will be paying the Root Policy Research group to make recommendations again. The city did not adopt a formal policy after this same consultant was paid in 2020. That study advised exactly what affordability price points to target and what the city had enough of. Was that followed?
The only two City Council members I've seen ask any strategy questions are Beller and Cloutier.

Below are the low-income/affordable housing CC goals for FY26 FY26Strategic Goals - Department Objectives