City keeps water, roads infrastructure atop list of priorities for FY26 budget

City leaders don’t anticipate significant changes between the municipality’s current budget for Fiscal Year 2025 and the still-developing financial plan for FY2026.
“My opinion is that we have caught up to the point that we can be more proactive now than we were in the past, instead of just reactive,” Gladewater City Manager Charlie Smith said Monday. “In saying that, I also realize that we’ve got a long ways to go with a lot of things.”
Even with no change in the tax rate, local coffers will see a gain from increases in appraised values and new properties on the tax rolls.
“We finally got our numbers, and our numbers came back really high,” Smith told Gladewater City Council members during their first budget workshop of the season July 31.
According to local appraisal districts’ end-of-July releases, the municipality’s certified taxable values total $321,964,681 between Gregg County and Upshur. It’s a 9.2 percent increase compared to last year’s figures.
“We came back good with our ad valorem taxes,” Smith said. “That’s what everything works on here; and the sales tax.
“We just have to make those numbers fit our budget with everything we’ve been working on the past three years especially.”
Parks will likely see upgrades in the coming year, and the city will continue to devote a healthy portion of its resources to maintaining, upgrading and replacing aging water and roads infrastructure.
Employee retention is another priority, Smith said this week.
“We’re looking at an across-the-board raise for employees,” he confirmed. “I think what we’re looking at is probably 2.5 percent right now.”
There’s no tax rate change anticipated, but many local taxpayers will be paying more following increases in their appraisals.
The proposed tax rate for FY2026 will be the subject of a public hearing during the council’s regularly-scheduled monthly meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 21.
“This proposed budget will decrease total taxes from last year’s budget by $20,628 (0.69 percent),” according to the city, “and $39,986 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year.”
The city’s tax rate data arrived Thursday, hours before the budget workshop. Consequently, many of last week’s budget numbers were still in flux.
That said, “I usually go off an average of current and the last three years to come up with my numbers,” City Treasurer Meghan Foster reminded the council.
Notably, the City of Gladewater’s sales tax for the current year performed over expectations.
“It spiked with all the businesses coming in, especially Starbucks,” Foster noted. That doesn’t mean the coming year’s will be as robust: “I want to be real conservative and not overshoot my budget.”
One-third of the city’s collections funds Gladewater Economic Development Corporation’s activities.
Much of the next budget workshop will focus on self-sustaining water fund. Meanwhile, city staffers continue seeking additional ways to supplement local resources beyond taxpayer dollars.
“We have a lot of grants working right now that are going to help with a lot of these problems we’ve had and are having with replacement of waterlines and sewer lines,” Smith said. “We’ve spent a lot of money doing the right thing for the city.”