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

HOW TO READ THIS DOCUMENT

You are reading the published City of Mansfield Budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2025, and ending
September 30, 2026. This document has been prepared to help you, the reader, learn about the issues affecting the
Mansfield community. Many people believe a City Budget is only a financial plan. Although you can learn much of the
City’s financial portfolio, the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget Document has been designed to serve other functions as well.
The budget is a policy document as it presents major policies that guide how the City is managed. The budget is also an
operational guide that gives the public, elected officials, and City staff information pertaining to the production and
performance of individual departments. Finally, the budget is drafted as a communication device. Information is
conveyed in a way that should be easy to understand, even by those unfamiliar with the City of Mansfield.

THE BUDGET FORMAT

The Budget Document is divided into eight major sections: Introduction, Budget Overview, Budget and Financial Policies,
Long-Term Financial Plan, Major Revenues, Fund Summaries, Debt Service, and finally, detailed financial and operational
information on each of the major funds: General Fund, Enterprise Funds, Special Revenue Funds, and Capital Projects
Funds. There is also an appendix at the end of the document.

The Introductory section contains a synopsis of the City in terms of the community and its demographics. The City
Manager’s Budget Message, addressed to the City Council, explains the major issues and strategic priorities that affected
the development of the 2025-2026 Budget.

The Budget Overview section provides a "Budget-in-Brief" which summarizes revenues, staffing, operations and
maintenance, transfers, equipment, and debt for the General Fund and other major funds, including Enterprise Funds,
Special Revenue Funds and Capital Improvement Funds.

Next, Budget and Financial Policies are outlined. This section includes details on the budget development and
implementation process, as well as reporting, revenue and expenditure, debt, and investment policies.

The City's Long-Term Financial Plan, or Strategic Plan, forecasts revenues and expenditures for the General Fund,
Water/Sewer Utility Fund, and the Capital Improvement Funds over the next ten years. The plan also addresses staffing
needs for the organization over the next 10 years.

The Major Revenues section provides an in-depth look at the various funding sources, including property tax, sales tax, and
franchise taxes, and assumptions that are made to estimate future revenue. In short, the Major Revenues section explains
where the City’s funding comes from.

The City of Mansfield uses the fund method of accounting. A fund is a unit that tracks the application of public resources.
In the Major Fund Summaries section, financial statements are provided for each fund, showing the beginning balances,
revenues and expenditures (sources and uses), and ending balances for the year.

The Debt Service Funds section explains the various types of debt and their uses. In this section, the reader can also find
the calculation of the City's legal debt limit, the City's credit ratings, and debt payment schedules for each of the debt
funds.

The Financial/Operational section explains not only the City’s organizational structure, but specific fund and department
information as well. There may be one or more departments that comprise each fund. Most interest is in the General
Fund, which includes City operations and is funded primarily by property and sales tax. Within each department are
multiple divisions which have specialized or specific purposes in the organization. Each department/division is presented

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