Mission City Considers Property Tax Increase Amid 2026 Budget Deficit

The city of Mission is evaluating a property tax increase to address an ongoing budget deficit for the 2026 fiscal year. City officials aim to maintain adequate reserve levels while continuing to fund essential resident services such as street maintenance and solid waste management. The proposed mill levy rate could increase by up to 3.5 mills, raising the total to 22.007 mills for 2026 if approved. This change translates to an estimated $200 increase in annual property taxes for the average homeowner. Mission faces a nearly $50,000 deficit for the 2026 budget despite efforts to reduce a previously projected $900,000 shortfall through spending cuts, vacated staff positions, and deferred expenditures. Although revenues from property taxes and sales/use taxes outpace expenditures in the general fund, a significant transfer of funds to capital improvement and service-oriented funds, including street maintenance and solid waste, creates the overall deficit. The city council has authorized exceeding the state-mandated revenue neutral rate to support this budget. Mission's general fund revenue is approximately $16.3 million, largely driven by $5.1 million in property taxes, with sales and use taxes contributing $4.4 million, supplemented by county distributions. On the expenditure side, personnel costs of $10.2 million constitute the largest budget item, followed by $3.7 million in contractual services. The city's budgetary challenge is compounded by required refunds to large commercial taxpayers, impacting retail sales and use tax revenues by nearly $1 million in recent years. Such refunds, including a recent $330,000 refund to a utility company, shift financial burdens onto residential taxpayers. The city has introduced a community rebate program assisting low-income and elderly residents with tax and utility payments, having distributed over $25,000 to 29 households in 2025. Budget discussions dating back to April 2023 highlight efforts to synchronize fiscal responsibility with resident service priorities, including infrastructure maintenance and facility upgrades. The city plans to maintain a general fund reserve balance of 25%, notwithstanding the revenue challenges. The budget strategy for 2026 includes balancing the reduction of expenditures with the proposed tax increase to manage the deficit and sustain service levels demanded by the community.