Collin County Commissioners Court Preview — September 14, 2026

Bottom Line (Ironically, at the Top)

Ladies and gents, this is the moment you waited for. The Commissioners Court will adopt the FY 2027 budget and a property tax rate of $0.151414 per $100 of value. That is up from $0.149343, where the rate has sat for three straight years, and it is above the no-new-revenue rate of $0.147806. Note that it’s with a 2.50% decline in the average home value. The Court will also consider a formal policy of not participating in any future tax increment reinvestment zones, set FY 2027 salaries for every elected official in the county, and create a new Public Improvement District (PID) out near Princeton. Notable consent and FYI spending totals $1,693,439.11.

Logistics

Review the full agenda here. Meetings start at 1:30 p.m. at the Jack Hatchell Administration Building, 4th Floor, 2300 Bloomdale Road, McKinney, TX 75071. You can sign up to speak at Commissioners Court meetings in person by filling out a blue card shortly before the meeting. You may alternatively share your thoughts by emailing the Commissioners Court through their contact info here. Videos of the meetings can be viewed here.

Commissioners Court Business (General Discussion Items)

1. The FY 2027 budget and tax rate. This involves ten votes, starting with public hearings on the proposed FY 2027 tax rate and the proposed FY 2027 budget, then adoption of the maintenance and operations rate at $0.109564, the debt service rate at $0.041850, and the combined rate at $0.151414. Translation: the county’s effective tax increase is 2.19 percent. That’s on top of the $817.5 million bond election for November 3. If it passes, projections show the debt rate going from 4.18 cents to as much as 4.95 cents. Note that property taxes are assessed on more than just homes; they apply to commercial property and multifamily as well, which get no protections from property tax under state law. Also in this block: the FY 2027 fund balance commitments under GASB 54, and the Trails of Blue Ridge budget and tax rate for the small special road district up in Blue Ridge.
   
2. Adoption of FY 2027 elected officials’ salaries. Commissioners go from $160,816.24 to $168,101.62 and the County Judge to $191,539.17. Justices of the Peace go up to $154,150.05, and Constables to $138,340.78. District Judge supplements move from $18,000 to $25,000. The Sheriff and the District Attorney’s supplement both hold flat..
   
3. Adoption of a policy regarding Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones. I wrote about the TIRZ in my recent article about the Dallas Stars’ move, and this policy will apply to the arena. A TIRZ directs growth in taxable value of an area into a fund for infrastructure inside the zone instead of the general fund. Cities use them, and sometimes the county participates. In McKinney’s zones, it dedicates half its annual increment. Since 2011 the written policy has been to decide on a case by case basis. This proposal is for a flat policy of non-participation in future zones. In my article I noted that I didn’t think county participation in the TIRZ for the Stars arena made sense, while the Plano ISD’s participation did.
   
4. Public hearing on creation of a public improvement district and the resolution creating the Cobble Creek PID. This is to create a Public Improvement District (PID) on 108.53 acres south of CR 643, west of FM 547, and north of FM 1778. This is similar to a TIRZ in that it applies to a specific geographic area, but it’s paid by assessments on property inside the district, not by county property tax, and this incurs no county obligation. The petition estimates $12 million in eligible improvements across roads, parks, sidewalks, water, wastewater, and drainage.
   
5. Public hearing — re-plat of lots 1, 2 and 3 of Madelynn Crossing Minor Plat this is to create Madelynn Crossing Phase 1: 36.78 acres and 73 residential lots inside the Madelynn Meadows Municipal Utility District (MUD) No. 1, with water from North Collin SUD and sewer from an on-site plant permitted through TCEQ. It drains toward the East Fork of the Trinity and eventually Lake Lavon; the flood study is approved and a FEMA map revision may be required before final plat recordation. All that has to do with the boring, but super-important matter of water provisioning and drainage.
   
6. 90th Legislative Agenda. There are several things proposed in the packet, the most important of which I think is a draft resolution asking the Legislature to give counties authority to regulate noise in unincorporated areas, aimed at 24/7 industrial cooling and data center hum next to rural homesteads.
   
7. Regional Transportation Council monthly update from Commissioner Hale’s office. No attachments posted.

Executive Session

Executive session is a closed meeting authorized by Texas law for discussions involving real estate, personnel, pending litigation, or attorney-client matters. Any action taken must return to open session.

Notable Consent & FYI Items

Total of $1,693,439.11 of your money in proposed expenses

• Tyler Enterprise ERP (Munis) SaaS maintenance: $592,868.07, and Tyler Enterprise Permitting & Licensing (EnerGov) SaaS maintenance: $416,251.26. Same vendor. About $1 million for the county’s core financial system and permitting platform.
• Tax collection software maintenance with SpindleMedia: $230,786.93. Well, do you want your taxes collected or not? Don’t answer that…
• Amendment No. 9 to records management maintenance with MCCi: $167,817.83 for Laserfiche records management (not LaserFISH, which would be kind of awesome. Then we could finally get sharks with frickin’ laser beams on their heads).
• Acceptance of the Detention Expansion Projects grant: $142,000 from the Texas Juvenile Justice Department for a full-body scanner at juvenile detention, with no county match required. I’ve deducted it from the total above because it’s money coming in, not going out. In the same vein, but smaller: Acceptance of a donated facility performance assessment from McKinstry Essention LLC, valued at $2,750.
• Five interlocal road improvement agreements with Melissa, Princeton, Sachse, Weston, and St. Paul, under which the county does the work and the city reimburses in full. No dollar figure appears on any of the five.
• Also on consent: redesignating Richland Drive as Richmond Drive (I don’t know if there will be any rich men to the north of it) and renaming Private Road 6128 to Lake Beach Drive.

How to Engage

• Watch: Meetings are broadcast and archived through Collin County’s video portal at collincountytx.gov.
• Speak: Fill out a blue card at the County Clerk’s office before the 1:30 PM start.
• Read: The full agenda with linked attachments.
• Contact: Commissioners Court members and the County Judge are listed at the County’s Commissioners Court page.

Budget adoption is the biggest thing the Court does all year, and is a statutory duty. All the other county offices depend on it. It won’t be exciting, but it’s consequential.

— Shelby