Fair Oaks Ranch City Council gave first-reading approval Sept. 15, 2025, to its fiscal 2025-26 budget and a 28.53-cent city property-tax rate, then reviewed a new employee-pay structure, according to the Sept. 15 meeting minutes.
For the city’s $686,610 median-valued homestead example, the projected city property-tax bill was $1,959 for the year, unchanged from the prior-year example—a $0 annual and $0 monthly change. The no-new-revenue example was $1,890 for the year, $69 less annually, or $5.75 a month, than the proposed-budget example.
What the first readings did
Fair Oaks Ranch City Council approved the fiscal 2025-26 budget ordinance on first reading on Sept. 15, 2025. Council conducted the scheduled public hearing on the fiscal 2025-26 proposed budget before acting on the budget ordinance.
The proposed general fund budget raised operating expenditures from $9,880,234 in fiscal 2024-25 to $10,624,371 in fiscal 2025-26, a $744,137, or 7.5%, increase. The same table showed services rising by $696,546, or 29.9%, while personnel costs declined by $6,506.
The budget assigned $659,480 to the Strategic Projects Fund, including $200,000 for Fire Station No. 3 upgrades, $100,000 for a facilities master plan, $35,000 for strategic planning and $324,480 for two Rolling Acres Trail drainage projects. A separate $423,555 bond-capital schedule covered $315,000 of Rolling Acres Trail design work and $108,555 of Ammann Road engineering.
Council conducted the scheduled hearing on the proposed city tax rate before considering the tax ordinance. Council also approved on first reading a tax-rate ordinance setting 28.53 cents per $100 of taxable value: 25.674 cents for maintenance and operations and 2.856 cents for debt service.
A pay structure moved toward implementation
Council reviewed general-government and public-safety pay schedules containing 30 steps separated by 1.5%. The packet said the prior structure used roughly 18 steps separated by 2.5%; the proposed placement method was designed to put every employee at least one step above the recommended market minimum.
The workshop materials identified maintenance, utilities and public-safety positions as the groups expected to benefit most from the adjustments. They said the proposed costs were already included within the fiscal 2025-26 budget, so the plan did not require another budget amendment at that stage.
What followed
The packet scheduled second and final readings for Sept. 18, 2025, and said the final pay schedules would return by resolution at the next regular council meeting.
Readers comparing budget cycles can review Comal.News coverage of the fiscal 2026-27 tax-rate ceiling, the later proposed tax rate and the Aug. 6 meeting breakdown.
The Sept. 18 final ordinances, vote record and compensation resolution are the next records to compare with these first readings. Readers can inspect the Sept. 15 minutes for the recorded actions and the meeting packet for the budget tables, project schedules, tax-rate breakdown and proposed pay ranges.