What happened: The Midland City Council met Tuesday, Sept. 15, and voted unanimously to adopt a $504 million fiscal year 2026-27 budget and a no-new-revenue property tax rate about 10% higher than the current rate. Despite the higher rate, “no-new-revenue” means the city will collect roughly the same $65.2 million in property taxes from properties on the tax rolls in both years. Another $2.4 million will come from new construction.

The city increased the rate in order to collect the same as last year because Midland’s existing taxable property values fell by about $1.5 billion. However, city staff said about 46% of properties will receive a lower city tax bill this year, and the median property tax bill is expected to fall by about $67 because residential taxable values have declined. The new budget and tax rate take effect Oct. 1.

Key points:

  • $504M budget: The new budget is about 9.5% larger than last year’s $460.9 million budget. However, city staff said $46 million is one-time spending on capital projects. Without the one-time spending, staff said the city’s operating budget would be within 1% of last year’s level. City Manager Tommy Gonzales said council directed staff to pay cash for capital projects rather than take on debt.

Staff also pointed to savings from completing some work with city employees instead of contractors and from renegotiating contracts. Gonzales said those savings are often offset by rising costs elsewhere, particularly for emergency response.

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City staff said police, fire, and EMS spending has more than doubled over the past 10 years. The new budget includes about $105.1 million for emergency response, while the city expects to collect about $67.7 million in total property tax revenue. That means all of the city’s property tax revenue would still fall about $37.4 million short of paying for police, fire, and EMS alone.

  • Firefighter pay increase: The adopted budget raises the fire department’s starting salary to $75,000, up from about $63,000. Council discussed the increase at its previous meeting after Councilman Jack Ladd pointed to Lubbock’s recent increase in its starting firefighter salary to $71,580. The Midland pay increase and related compensation changes are expected to cost approximately $1.1 million annually.