Flower Mound - Highland Village - Argyle | September 2025

Government

BY CONNOR PITTMAN

Flower Mound ocials have proposed a budget of nearly $452.48 million ahead of its potential adoption in September. Council held a work session on the town manager’s proposed budget Aug. 21. Within the town’s scal year 2025-26 budget, the general fund has a surplus of $38,509, including projected revenues of around $97.26 million and $97.22 million in expenditures. The general fund helps pay for sta, materials and contractual services, according to town documents. The budget also includes a 3% merit increase for all employees, Director of Budget Services Meg Jakubik said. Town Manager James Childers said the entire budget included $4.4 million in non- discretionary increases, which included the raises, but the general fund only accounts for $12,800 of that amount. Flower Mound sta propose $452M budget

By the numbers

Flower Mound residents can expect their utility bills to increase later this year, based on proposed water, sewer and stormwater rates. Based on the proposed increase, accounting for the average monthly water usage of 15,000 gallons and 8,000 gallons of sewer, a customer who cur- rently pays $174.43 monthly will pay $183.53 per month after the new rates take eect in October. Chris Ekrut, chief nancial ocer at NewGen Strategies and Solutions, the rm who analyzed the town’s utility rates, added that he recommends town ocials examine dierent rate increases for water and sewer in future scal years because going forward sewer costs are expected to rise faster than water costs. Ekrut said the town will change how it bills non-residential customers by taking $6.50

Flower Mound utility rate changes

5.25% proposed increased for water and sewer rates

$6.50 after residential stormwater fee increase Increase of $9.10 for the average utility bill based on 15,000 gallons of water usage and 8,000 gallons for sewer

residential fee, a proposed increase, and multiply- ing it by the equivalent residential units equal to the square footage of impervious surfaces, paved areas with water-resistant material.

Diving deeper

the rate, which helps cover general town expenses, is $0.334294 per $100 of assessed value. The inter- est and sinking portion, used to help repay debt, is $0.052983 per $100 of assessed value.

The budget is based on a tax rate of $0.387277 per $100 of assessed value, which is a decrease from the current tax rate of $0.387278 per $100 of assessed value. The maintenance and operations component of

FY 202526 general fund expenditures

1 Personnel services: $72.15M 2 Contractual services: $19.51M 3 Supplies and materials: $3.08M

2 3

Flower Mound tax rate FY 202126

Maintenance and operations rate

Interest and sinking rate

$0.3478

$0.34834 $0.03896

2020-21

2023-24

4 Maintenance: $2.36M 5 Capital outlay: $100K

$0.0887

$97.2M total budget

$0.35064 $0.05436

$0.32388

2021-22

2022-25

$0.0634

SOURCE: TOWN OF FLOWER MOUND COMMUNITY IMPACT

$0.36087

$0.33429

2022-23

2025-26*

$0.04413

$0.05298

SOURCE: TOWN OF FLOWER MOUNDCOMMUNITY IMPACT

*PROPOSED

What else?

It also means town sta have to present budgetary data earlier in the budget cycle. A public hearing on the proposed tax rate and budget is scheduled for Sept. 15. Leading into the public hearing, town sta will work to make some minor tweaks to the budget, Zagurski said. The tax rate and budget are expected to be adopted at the Sept. 15 meeting.

history of the town,” Chief Financial Ocer John Zagurski said. In future scal years, to maintain expected service levels, Childers said town sta may have to call for a voter-approval tax rate election, VATRE. No VATRE will be called for the FY 2025-26 budget, but if it is considered in future scal years, town sta will develop two budgets, he added.

Childers said some of the main challenges with the proposed budget were maintaining current service levels and compensating sta in line with town policy, while also dealing with stagnant sales tax and declining property tax revenues. “My outlook from [July 1] to the end of July rapidly changed because we saw things change that had never happened before in the

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