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City News · Finance

FY2027 Budget Remains Under Consideration, Where It Is Comfortable

Not adopted, not revised, and not, according to the statutes, anything else.

Hawk Cove, Texas, October 20, 2026. Deliberation is a virtue, and the FY2027 budget is getting plenty of it. At tonight’s regular meeting City Attorney Ronna L. Hodges told the Council the budget hearing was held September 15, 2026, and “The council did not and has not adopted the proposed budget either at that meeting or since” (meeting video). Asked whether any revisions had been made to the budget presented before, the answer was: “At this time, no.”

What the budget says

We hold three pages of the FY2027 amended proposed budget, signed by the Mayor with the date line blank. Under the heading “Balanced funding plan”: “The amended budget provides $767,863.89 in operating revenue and $804,545.69 in operating expenditures.” That is $36,681.80 more going out than coming in. It “uses $38,792.80 of identified beginning operating fund balance,” which covers it, with room to spare.

  • The message gives the M&O rate as 0.665541 and the debt rate as 0.154902 (page 1). Those add to 0.820443. The proposed rate is 0.794903.
  • Roads: “6051 GF-R&M-Roads,” $10,000.00. City Attorney fees: $41,716.00 (page 2).
  • Police fuel: $72.00. Fire Department Payments: $0.00 (page 2).
  • “IRS Payroll Tax Payment Agreement”: $42,000.00 (page 2).
  • The “Budget Adoption and Filing Record” has five boxes. All five are empty (page 3).

If it is never adopted

On September 22, the Council was told: “The budget from last year does not automatically roll forward. The council is required statutorily to pass the budget” (September 22, 2026, 0:18:17). That night the motion to adopt it found no second: “Item B dies in motion. We have no vote to record” (0:40:51).

Tonight the Council heard a fuller answer: “The statutes do not specifically address what happens when a council fails to pass a legislatively mandated budget.” The Texas Municipal League’s advice, as relayed, is that “the city relies on the last budget that was formally passed by the council. Typically, that also means the last year’s budget.” And: “the statutes do not specifically say that. They also don’t say not” (meeting video).

We hold no adopted budget for any year. If the City has the last one that was formally passed, it is welcome to send it, and we will post it right away.

Quotes from the October 20, 2026 meeting are from our transcript of a recording of it, checked against captions, linked to the City’s meeting video; times are not given because the recording may not match the City’s upload. The video is the record. The budget pages are on Finances.

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