Leander's 2026-27 budget: spending ran ahead, savings drop

Key facts

• General fund: $84.16 million¹
• 2025-26 spending: $89.8M estimated vs. $81.1M planned¹
• Fund balance: $30.2M → $21.0M, about 3 months of spending¹
• Biggest revenue: property tax, about 55% ($45.95M)¹

The 30-second version

The general fund pays for police, fire, streets and parks. For 2026-27 it is $84.2 million.¹ Property tax brings in a little over half; sales tax about a sixth.

Last year the city spent more than it planned: about $89.8 million vs. $81.1 million. The whole gap is “non-departmental” spending: $21.3M vs. $10.1M, or $11.2M more. All the other departments together came in about $2.5M under plan (our math).¹

Why? The budget does not say. It does not say what the extra $11.2M paid for. Here is what it does show. In 2022-23 through 2024-25, the non-departmental line included $4.5M to $5.9M a year sent to the city’s building-projects fund. The 2025-26 plan had no such transfer. Savings drop by about $9.1M in 2025-26, close to the overrun. The budget does not link these two facts. The 2025-26 audit (due in 2027) should show what the money paid for.¹

The other side. The overrun was all in one line. The city’s daily department costs came in under plan. Savings still end above the city’s 25% floor ($15.8M).¹

Savings are expected to fall from $30.2 million to $21.0 million during 2025-26, and stay there in 2026-27. That is about three months of spending.¹ So what: savings are a cushion for storms or a bad year, and this cushion is getting thinner. The budget also sets aside $180,000 for special elections, including a possible bond election.¹

Deep dive

Spending grew from $62.9M (2022-23) to $74.9M (2024-25) to about $89.8M (2025-26 est.).¹ These budget totals count money the fund sends to other city funds, and they use budget rules, not audit rules.

What the audits show (main fund, years ended Sept. 30)

Year	Spent	Sent to other funds	Savings at year end
2020	$39.2M	$2.8M	$20.7M
2021	$44.5M	$2.8M	$29.0M
2022	$51.9M	$5.1M	$26.2M
2023	$56.3M	$6.2M	$30.6M
2024	$62.4M	$4.6M	$37.3M

Source: audited figures as shown in the city’s 2025 bond filing, Table 12.² The audit’s 2023 spending plus money sent out is $62.5M. That is close to the budget’s $62.9M, but not the same. The audit’s 2024 savings ($37.3M) are far above the budget’s $28.4M. Most of that gap is money the audit counts but has already set aside. In 2024 the audit held $6.9M for equipment and vehicles, $1.2M for set programs and $1.0M paid ahead. Take those out and $28.2M is left, within $0.3M of the budget. 2025 works the same way: $41.7M in the audit, $31.1M after those set-asides, and $30.2M in the budget (our math).³ The audit says the city builds its budget on the same accounting rules as the audit.⁴ So the gap is not about rules. It is about what each document counts as savings: the audit counts every dollar left in the fund, and the budget counts roughly the part not already set aside. At the start of 2024-25 the audit counted $37.3M in savings, while the budget counted $28.4M. Neither document says exactly which set-asides the budget leaves out, so we have not found the last $0.9M (our math).

Unassigned general fund balance (savings not set aside for anything) at Sept. 30, 2024 was $23.9 million, 38.2% of spending.⁵

The tax rate split

The 2026-27 city rate is 41.7282 cents per $100. Of that, 27.4483 cents runs the city and 14.2799 cents pays debt. The debt part is the same as last year.¹

Questions to ask

• When will the city report how last year ended?
• Did the city sell any investments at a loss, and where is that reported?

Changes to this page

• Nov. 2, 2026: We removed our guess about what the extra spending paid for. The page now shows only what the budget says.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We re-checked every figure against the saved budget and audits. All matched.
• Nov. 2, 2026: Rewrote the questions to ask so each is open, neutral and addressed to the public body.
• Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.

What you can do or watch next

• Watch for mid-year budget changes (amendments) on council agendas.
• The next budget is proposed next summer, with public hearings in August and September.
• You can speak at those hearings or email council members.

What we still don’t know

• How the 2025-26 year really ended. The budget only gives an estimate.
• Whether the paper loss on investments was ever turned into a real loss.

Numbers marked “our math” are our estimates, not official figures. The notes show the inputs and the steps.

Why Leander’s savings dipped in 2022 (update)

In FY2022 the city’s main fund ended with $2.8 million less than it started with. Three things explain it:

1. Investment earnings of minus $4.1 million, mostly a paper loss. Interest rates jumped in 2022. When rates rise, older bonds the city already owns are worth less if sold today. The city’s audit says this “unrealized loss” was the key reason for the drop.⁶
2. Money moved to building projects: $4.4 million. The main fund sent $4,397,500 to the city’s construction fund “to fund various construction projects.” Total transfers out were $5.08 million. That is about $650,000 less than budgeted.⁶
3. Money set aside, not spent. About $5.3 million was earmarked for equipment and vehicles. That’s part of why “unassigned” savings fell by about $5 million while total savings fell by $2.8 million.⁶

The other side: the city’s rules keep investments short (no single one longer than 3 years). Bonds held until they mature pay back in full, so a paper loss usually goes away. The main fund then earned $3.6 million on investments in FY2023 and $5.4 million in FY2024.⁵ Without the paper loss, FY2022 income would have topped spending by about $5 million.

Footnotes

1. City of Leander FY2027 adopted budget. Budget. (Saved budget copy only: no public mirror found.) All 2025-26 and 2026-27 figures on this page rest on this copy; no state source carries them yet. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

2. Series 2025 CO final official statement, Table 12 (General Fund revenues and expenditures history, from the audited statements). MSRB EMMA: https://emma.msrb.org/P11885277.pdf ↩

3. City of Leander audited financial reports FY2024 and FY2025, General Fund balance detail Public copies: FY2025 https://emma.msrb.org/P11938164.pdf; FY2024 https://emma.msrb.org/P21900727.pdf (MSRB EMMA). Budget ending balances: FY2027 adopted budget, operating funds summary. Our math. ↩

4. City of Leander, Annual Financial Report FY2025, Notes to Budgetary Schedule (budgets adopted “on a basis consistent with generally accepted accounting principles, except for the Capital Projects fund”); General Fund budget-and-actual schedule, beginning fund balance $37,306,929. FY2027 adopted budget, General Fund summary, 2024-25 beginning fund balance $28,435,647 and ending $30,182,205. Audit 2025 after set-asides: $41,655,149 − $1,002,269 prepaid − $1,382,433 committed − $8,214,192 equipment and vehicles = $31,056,255; minus $30,182,205 = $874,050. ↩

5. FY2024 annual report, excerpted in the Series 2025 CO Final official statement, Series 2025 COs, dated Sept. 18, 2025, on MSRB EMMA: https://emma.msrb.org/P11885277.pdf (saved copy) (unassigned $23,884,711, 38.2%; Table 12 for FY2020–24 spending). Public copy of the FY2024 report: https://emma.msrb.org/P21900727.pdf. ↩ ↩²

6. City of Leander FY2022 Annual Financial Report, in the Feb. 16, 2023 City Council packet (CivicClerk). Accepted by council that night. Public copy of the final FY2022 report: https://emma.msrb.org/P21717438.pdf (MSRB EMMA). ↩ ↩² ↩³