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City of Mansfield Annual Budget and Service Program Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Table of Contents

Strategic Plan

The Plan is designed to meet the current and future service demands of the community
based upon current management practices and current funding provisions of existing
programs. It allows for the expected or projected service needs of the community for the
next ten fiscal years, 2026-2035. The service needs include the Capital Improvement
Programs, Operating and Capital Equipment Programs, employee recruitment programs,
and expansion of existing programs. City departments have provided input and a needs
assessment of the expected service level requirements in the future.

The Plan is designed for continuous adjusting based on economic variables and local
activity drivers that affect the service requirements. It provides for a degree of certainty in
setting expectations for future spending and is expressive in its intent of future spending
patterns but is not to be construed as the final funding authority for future programs, future
indebtedness or commitments to any program, vendor, stakeholder, or other interested
party of the City as occurrences in the development of the City may alter the priority of
funding uses required to service the City.

Financial Forecast and Projections

This Strategic Plan is a planning tool used to guide and address these demands for funding
while identifying potential stress points or weaknesses in the services being provided by
the City. It is also designed to steer the City clear of fiscal distress or warn Management of
potential fiscal stress when assuming certain assumptions in spending patterns,
inflationary provisions, legislative mandates, infrastructure programs, and recruitment and
retention programs. It also encourages the City to think into the future and in so doing, it
encourages managers to anticipate the costs of future populations as well as current
populations, while providing for the financial stability of the community by projecting the
future costs of City services.

This Strategic Plan includes revenues and expenditures for a period of ten years. The
objective of the forecast is simply to measure or guide the allowance of costs. Over the ten-
year forecast, revenues and expenditures are projected to increase steadily as the
population is expected to increase 46% over the next decade. The City’s economy is
influenced some by the national economy but is more influenced by its population growth
and its economic development programs. Since the 2020 census, the City’s population has
increased by over 18,700 residents. During this time, the national economy has moved
through many economic cycles including the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic, yet the
City’s population has continued to grow because of its location in North Texas. Growth over
the next decade is expected to continue at a pace of 4%-5% per year in population, and the
number of new businesses moving into the community.
In forecasting revenues and expenses for the City’s General Fund and Water & Sewer Fund
into the future, Management projects revenue trends to average in the range of 5% to 10%
over the next ten years, with expenses being controlled or managed to approximately 3% to
5% over the next ten years. The City could experience higher costs of operations because of
the effects of federal monetary policy, rising interest rates, energy prices, commodity prices,
labor markets, costs of raw water, and the costs of treating wastewater. Current spending
patterns suggest that minimum costs could increase 3% to 5% year over year, but these
spending patterns are extremely subject to economic variables that could easily adjust the
trajectory of the City’s presently projected spending pattern. Detailed projections by
revenue source and spending purposes are provided in the tables that follow.

Key Rates
Tax Rate projections over the next ten years predict the tax rate to remain constant or at its
current rate of $0.639000 cents per $100 in assessed valuation of property within the City of
Mansfield, Texas, subject to legislative action, and a 16% Homestead Exemption with the
potential for additional Homestead Exemption and tax rate reduction in future years. Water
and Sewer rates are expected to remain constant over the next ten years except for
potential, modest rate increases year over year. Modest increases are expected to pay for
the significant cost increases being passed along to the City for the cost of delivering raw

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