Hawk Cove, Texas, August 29, 2025. The “Proposed City Budget FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2025 - 2026, Prepared by: City Administration” was updated today (cover). Before anything else it offers a security statement: “If you receive this document in error, please do not read, copy, or disseminate it” (page 2 of 7). A proposed budget is a public record. Texas law says it “shall be available for inspection by any person” (Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code §102.005(c)). We are not in error, so we read it.
Page 4 of 7 is headed “The following statement is provided in accordance with Texas Local Government Code 102.005:” and then reads, in full, “THIS PAGE NOT YET COMPOSED AS OF THIS PUBLICATION” (page 4 of 7). The table of contents lists that line as a chapter of its own, on page 4 (page 1 of 7).
The numbers
- Proposed tax rate: $1.083993 per $100, which the page calls “a ($0.309854 / 0.774139 = 0.400256) 40.0256 percent increase from last year’s budget” (page 5 of 7).
- The same page lists a maintenance and operations rate of $0.894039 and an interest and sinking rate of $0.129954. Those add to $1.023993. The proposed rate is $1.083993, which is also, exactly, the “Voter Approval Rate” (page 5 of 7).
- New property: “(1.083993 per $100 x $1,084,390.00 in New Taxable Value =) 1,175471.17” (page 5 of 7). By our arithmetic it is $11,754.71.
- Total income $869,739.00; total expenses $943,770.96; “INCOME & EXPENSE DIFFERENCE” ($74,031.96) (sheet 5).
So the proposal raises the rate by 40 percent and still spends $74,031.96 more than it takes in. The 2023–24 column on the same sheet shows a difference of ($173,956.64), so this is progress (sheet 5).
Line items of note
“7010 I&S-USDA-Loan Interest”: $77,000.00. “7020 I&S-IRS Back Tax-P&I”: $5,000.00. “5090 Professional Fees-City Attorney”: $30,000.00, up from $10,000.00 (sheet 3). Police fuel: $9,300.00 (sheet 2).
We hold no record that this proposal was adopted. What happened to the tax rate that year is in our story on the tax rate set by operation of law, and the budget pages are on Finances.