Council presented with proposed budget

Leading with the news that local governments across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex are facing “significant budget shortfalls” in 2026, the City of Weatherford’s Dawn Brooks assured council that wasn’t the case for the city before presenting the proposed budget. 

Brooks, the assistant city manager and chief financial officer, shared property-tax-rate hikes, hiring freezes and diminished services are real consequences in neighboring cities. 

“These aren’t isolated stories, but they reflect real pressures that cities across Texas are under right now,” she said, adding slow growth, rising costs and a state legislature that continues to tighten what local governments can do with their budgets add to the problem. “I’m proud to tell you that we are not [writing that similar headline]. Weatherford is financially sound.”

Brooks then showed the proposed tax rate of $0.392246 per $100 valuation, which is at or below the No-New-Revenue rate for the sixth time in seven years. No services or staffing need to be sacrificed despite rising costs. 

Part of it, Brooks said, is due to Weatherford’s strategies and policies, primarily its revenue discipline that budgets sales tax at a three-year average less the steepest one-year decline of which the city only relies on 90 percent of that for day-to-day operations.

“The remaining 10 percent is held back and used specifically for one-time items,” she said.  

Additionally, the spending discipline of revenues always exceeding expenses and it’s reserve policy of staying above a 120-day threshold – a 90-day requirement with an additional 30-day preference. 

“That cushion protects our credit rating and gives us room to absorb the unexpected,” she said. 

Of note, Brooks said, the challenges Weatherford and other cities are facing include HB9, a measure approved by the Texas Legislature that raised the business personal property exemption from $2,500 to $125,000. That move alone removed $68 million of taxable value from the tax roll. 

“The unintended consequence of this increased exemption is that residents would be required to subsidize … to maintain the No-New-Revenue rate,” she explained. 

However, new construction revenue in Weatherford almost matched that $68 million shortfall dollar for dollar so the loss did not need to be passed on for FY2027.

Budget Manager Ashley Esquivel then went into the actual budget numbers for council. FY2027 revenues and expenditures are about $120.8 million each, which would fund 17 departments, 333 employees and cover every program and service except for the city’s electric and water utilities. 

“We’re confident that this budget establishes a solid platform for Weatherford’s ongoing development and success,” Esquivel said. 

The next step in the budget process is for a vote on the proposed tax rate to be taken and a public hearing held on the proposed budget at the Aug. 25 City Council meeting. Then Sept. 8, a public hearing on the proposed tax rate and adoption of both will take place.