The finances

Money in and money out

Exhibit A-2 of the FY2025 report: all program and general revenues and all expenses of City government and the utilities. "Change in net position" is the report's own bottom line. In some years it differs from revenue minus expenses by items, such as transfers and special items, that the ten-year table does not list separately.

Where a dollar goes, FY2025

Revenue sources on the left, the City's functions on the right, as reported for FY2025. The report does not tie each source to the function it pays for, so every flow passes through one total. "Spent beyond revenue" is the $10.9M by which expenses exceeded revenue.

What it spends on

Expenses by function as the City reports them, Exhibit A-2.

Spending, prices and population

City government spent $211.2M in FY2016 and $377.7M in FY2025, up 78.8%. Over the same years, the prices state and local governments pay for staff, services, buildings and equipment rose 36.3%, and Amarillo's population rose 3.2%. Rising prices and more residents account for part of the increase. The rest is spending per resident after inflation, which went from $1,448 to $1,841 in FY2025 dollars, +27.1%. Without capital outlay (construction and equipment), it changed +15.2%.

Spending, FY2016–FY2025

+78.8%

$211.2M → $377.7M

Government prices

+36.3%

BEA state and local index · CPI-U +33.9%

Population

+3.2%

198,708 → 205,130

Per resident, after inflation

+27.1%

$1,448 → $1,841

The three parts multiply to the total: 1.363 × 1.032 × 1.271 = 1.788. Our calculation.

Growth since FY2016 (FY2016 = 100)

Spending per resident, in FY2025 dollars

From FY2016 to FY2021, government prices rose 16.8% and population 1.1%; spending per resident after inflation changed +3.8%, or −3.0% without capital outlay. From FY2021 to FY2025, government prices rose 16.6% and population 2.1%; spending per resident after inflation changed +22.5%, or +18.9% without capital outlay.

Spending: total expenditures of the City's governmental funds (Exhibit A-4), the measure closest to cash spent by City government; it leaves out the water, drainage and airport systems. Government prices: the Bureau of Economic Analysis price index for state and local government purchases, a national index (2017 = 100); CPI-U: the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index, U.S. city average (the South region's index gives +34.0% over the same years). Both are averaged over each fiscal year, October to September. Population: Census Bureau July 1 estimates, from the Vintage 2020 series for FY2016–FY2019 and Vintage 2025 from FY2020 on; the two series are not fully continuous. *Our calculation, in FY2025 dollars: each year's spending times the change in the government price index to FY2025, divided by population; the last column uses CPI-U instead. No index measures Amarillo's own costs.

What it owes

Debt principal outstanding went from $198.5M in FY2016 to $538.3M in FY2025, or from $999 to $2,642 per resident. Debt payments from the City's governmental funds were 6.8% of their non-capital spending in FY2025, up from 1.9% in FY2016. More on the debt.

Principal outstanding: all City debt, from the Texas Comptroller (as on the Debt page); per resident is our calculation. *Governmental funds only (Exhibit A-4), which leaves out the water, drainage and airport systems' own bond payments: principal and interest paid, debt service as a percentage of non-capital expenditures, and long-term debt issued.

What's in reserve

The General Fund's unassigned balance, money not set aside for a specific purpose, was $44.7M at the end of FY2025, down from a high of $74.9M in FY2022. The proposed FY2026/27 budget projects the General Fund ending FY2025/26 with $65.5M available and FY2026/27 with $55.8M, against a reserve of three months' operating spending that the budget book puts at $55.8M: $90,762 under.

Year-end General Fund balances, Exhibit A-3 (governmental funds basis). Budget projections from the proposed FY2026/27 budget book's General Fund summary, which measures available funds on the budget basis, so they do not match A-3. The FY2025/26 original budget expected $50.4M at year end.

Where the sources differ

• Sources differ
  The FY2025 report has two governmental-funds tables of tax revenue, the changes-in-fund-balances table (A-4) and the tax-revenues table (A-5). In most years their totals differ only by hotel tax rebates, which A-5 counts and A-4 does not (and in FY2020 by A-5's repeated hotel tax figure, listed on the Revenue page). For FY2025, A-4 gives $190,021,772, which is exactly the government-wide (accrual) tax total in A-2, not a governmental-funds figure; A-5 gives $183,872,492. The report does not explain it. More discrepancies are listed on the Revenue page.