Katy’s city council met on September 22 at City Hall, 901 Avenue C in Katy, to consider the city’s budget for the fiscal year 2025-2026. The new tax rates supporting the budget were also discussed. Councilmember Rory Robertson was not present at the meeting.

In unanimous votes, council approved tax rates as follows, which remain unchanged:

· Rate of $0.050368 per $100.00 of assessed valuation for debt service

· Rate of $0.374632 on each $100.00 of assessed valuation to fund maintenance and operations expenditures

The city’s new budget, also passed unanimously, provides for the addition of a police officer and four new patrol cars, as well as one firefighter and a replacement fire truck. The budget will fully fund the contingency reserve and will allocate $1.45 million to utility and wastewater upgrades. Seven percent of the budget will be devoted to parks and to Keep Katy Beautiful. Staff salaries were also adjusted as a result of a recent survey of area salaries, city staff said.

Two agenda items were pulled from the night’s discussion at the request of the city administrator, Mayor Pro Tem Chris Harris said. One policy related to the possible adoption of a microchipping policy for the city’s animal control department; the other issue was the planned discussion of amending special use permits and zoning ordinances in adopting regulations for battery energy storage systems (BESS).

The next meeting of city council will be held at 6:30 p.m. on October 13 at City Hall.