Collin County Commissioners Court Preview — August 31, 2026

Bottom Line (Ironically, at the Top)

The Court will hold a public hearing on the FY2027 budget, and will adopt it in some form on September 14. If you have commentary, you can speak at this meeting or on the 14th, but as I’ve noted previously, realistically speaking, no changes get made the date of the final vote on a budget. There will also be a public hearing on creating the Cobble Creek Public Improvement District (PID) on 108 acres in east Collin County, with an estimated $12 million in developer-funded improvements. The agenda for the 90th Texas Legislative Session will also be discussed and includes a new request for county authority to regulate noise in unincorporated areas. I SAID, A NEW REQUEST FOR COUNTY AUTHORITY TO REGULATE NOISE! Notable consent spending totals $4,256,760.55, and separately, the county is receiving $4.02 million from selling land to TxDOT for US 380.

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. Fiscal Year 2027 Budget: This is THE county budget that will be discussed. All documents are available on the budget website. Adoption is September 14, so this meeting and next Monday are effectively it for public input. The Court has already called an $817.5 million bond election for November 3 covering facilities, roads and bridges, parks, and a new elections and records storage building. The operational budget and the bonds are both paid for by taxpayer dollars. B-O-N-D is a four-letter word, but it’s the proper way to capitalize long-lived assets like roads and facilities. To understand more, read my 2021 article about municipal bonds. County bonds work the same way for the same purpose.
2. 90th Legislative Agenda: This is the county’s list of legislative requests for the Texas Legislature. Now there’s a new document asking the Legislature to give counties permissive authority to set noise standards in unincorporated areas, centered on data centers sited next to residences.
3. Public Hearing – Cobble Creek Public Improvement District (PID), and the resolution creating it on 108.53 acres south of CR 643, west of FM 547, north of FM 1778 (marked by the X on the map; careful of the sea serpent in the top left corner). A PID lets a developer levy an assessment on property inside the district to pay for roads, drainage, water, sewer, parks, and sidewalks, so property owners inside the district pay it, rather than taxpayers in the county at large. It doesn’t work the same way as a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) that I wrote about last week with regards to the proposed Dallas Stars arena. The petition estimates $12,000,000 in eligible improvements and doesn’t use county funds.

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.

• Real Estate: Purchase of right-of-way for County Road 1104, Engineering
• Real Estate: Collin County Adventure Camp, Administrative Services

Notable Consent & FYI Items

Total of $4,256,760.55 of your money in proposed expenses

It’s a contract renewal bonanza! The fiscal year ends September 30, so there’s a lot of re-upping our day-to-day contracts.

• Fuels renewal with Petroleum Traders: $2,062,774 for FY2027 from the General Fund and Road and Bridge Fund. The county spent $1,116,790.09 through FY2026 to date and $1,025,196.92 in all of FY2025, so the budget is roughly double recent usage; planning for a price spike we hope doesn’t materialize.
• Sheriff’s Office and Adult Probation interlocal for the VALOR program: $1,736,768.55 from the CSCD Fund for 33 secure residential beds, billed at a daily rate for beds actually used. VALOR is the county’s veterans program; this is the housing side of it and is reflective of our dearth of beds in the detention facility. Hence the new jail construction work.
• Property insurance renewal through the Texas Association of Counties (TAC): $1,037,435 from the County Insurance Fund. As an aside, Dr. Who would like everyone to know that while the agenda says this extends the contract through September 30, 2017, he went back in time to confirm, and this contract was not, in fact, retroactivaly applied. Therefore it myst be a typo that did not make its way onto the court order or other underlying documents.
• Budgeting $4,017,898 from the sale of land to TxDOT for US 380: The county received two checks $25,000 and $3,992,898 (not that it’s a competition). This is from the 2018 bond project the land was bought with and is not factored into the total money approved in this meeting. This is money coming in to where it came from.
• Four Texas Veterans Commission grants totaling $950,000: $400,000 for the VALOR mental health program, $400,000 for the Veterans Treatment Court, $100,000 for the Misdemeanor Veterans Treatment Court, and $50,000 in general assistance for justice-involved veterans. This is money coming in, so it’s deducted from the total. Judge Roach’s Veterans Treatment Court has been a marked success, and I look forward to seeing what Judge Bender does with it moving forward.
• $100,000 to upgrade the Medical Examiner’s case management software: The department is buying the newer version of the platform it already runs rather than paying to upgrade the old one.
• Terminating the Eugene Lane reconstruction agreement with the City of Nevada: The two sides couldn’t agree on who pays for the drainage work. Nevada’s finances wouldn’t cover it if the cost shifted to them, and Nevada’s council cancelled on August 4. The city’s own resolution says the street is in poor repair and inadequately serves both parties. Now nobody’s fixing it.
• $290,000 for elevator and escalator maintenance renewal with KONE.
• A two-year law enforcement training rental agreement with Collin College’s Public Safety Training Center, where the county pays the college’s posted rates as departments book the range and classrooms.

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.

Municipal, School District, and County budgets get adopted in mostly empty rooms, yet tens of thousands of people protest their home appraisals. The appraisals are only the first part of your property taxes. These budgets are the second part.

— Shelby