Page 15 - CityofSouthlakeFY27Budget

TABLE OF CONTENTS

August 14, 2026

Honorable Mayor and
Members of the City Council
1400 Main Street
Southlake, Texas 76092

Dear Mayor and Members of the City Council, Budget Overview

In accordance with the Texas Local Government Code and the Charter of the City of Southlake, it is
my privilege to present you with the annual operating budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1,
2026, and ending September 30, 2027. This budget is shaped by the same principles that have long
guided Southlake: a strategy the Council sets, a discipline the City holds to, and a standard of service
the community has come to expect. It continues the strength Southlake has built while preparing the
City for what comes next.

This budget arrives at a meaningful point for Southlake. For most of the City’s history, new construction
and strong sales tax growth gave the budget real flexibility, funding new services and amenities as the
community grew. As Southlake nears build-out, that dynamic is maturing: the sources that fund the
City’s core services remain healthy, but their growth is beginning to moderate.

None of this diminishes Southlake’s strength, because Southlake does not approach this moment from
a standing start. The City’s strong fiscal position was built on discipline, on years of deliberate choices
to live within the City’s means, protect its reserves, retire debt quickly, and pay for what it can with cash.
This budget continues that record rather than departing from it. Its decisions are made in full view of
the years behind them and the years ahead. Southlake budgets for the long horizon, and this year that
principle is central to how Southlake sustains its strength from one generation to the next.

Within that frame, the adopted budget keeps faith with the commitments the community counts on. It
ties every dollar to the Council’s strategy and to the accredited service levels that set Southlake apart.
It holds General Fund growth to 2%, absorbing a new municipal facility and continued cost pressure
without exceeding that mark. It extends the City’s tax relief record to a sixteenth consecutive measure,
and it does so in a year of reduced values. It invests in the people who deliver the City’s services while
continuing, for a third straight year, to match its staffing to evolving service needs. And it puts durable
structures in place, a dedicated fund to smooth public safety equipment costs and clearer guidelines for
the City’s voter-approved sales tax districts, whose value will be felt for years.

These decisions reflect the Strategic Management System that has connected Southlake’s strategy to its
budget since 2005, and the collaboration of department teams whose care is visible in every page that
follows. I am grateful to them, and to the Mayor and Council, whose direction keeps this work aimed at
what the community values most.

The adopted FY 2027 budget carries that stewardship forward, and has been developed to achieve the
following goals:

FY 2027 City of Southlake | Budget Book 15