Where the City of Amarillo's money comes from

We've spent this month on what the City of Amarillo owes. Now: where its money comes from.

The City took in $475.1 million in FY2025, up from $293.7 million ten years earlier, according to its audited reports. Here's what that means for residents:

• City taxes came to $926 per resident in FY2025, against $834 in FY2016, even after adjusting for inflation. Property tax per resident is up 28.8% after inflation. Sales tax per resident is up 3.4%.
• In every one of the last 12 years, the council adopted a property tax rate above the "no-new-revenue" rate, the rate that would raise the same tax from the same properties as the year before. Three times it went all the way to the voter-approval rate, the highest it can go without an election.
• For one average home using 10,000 gallons of water a month, City property tax, water, sewer, trash and drainage come to about $196.75 a month. That's before school, county and college taxes.

Over the next few weeks: the property tax rate, how the budget compares with what actually came in and went out, the water bonds your rates repay, and $244 million in federal grants.

Every figure and source: amarilloledger.com/revenue