The revenue

Where the money comes from

All City government and utility revenue, as reported in the government-wide statement in each year's audited report (Exhibit A-2 of the FY2025 report, accrual basis). It does not include money borrowed, transfers between City funds, or the separate bodies further down this page.

• Other taxes: Franchise fees (gross receipts business taxes), hotel occupancy and mixed beverage taxes.
• Other fees and charges: Solid waste, recreation, court fines, permits and other charges for City services.
• Grants and other: Federal, state and other grants and contributions, investment earnings and other revenue.

Taxes per resident, after inflation

In FY2025 dollars, City taxes came to $834 per resident in FY2016 and $926 in FY2025 (+11.1%). Property tax per resident went from $292 to $376 (+28.8%); sales tax from $378 to $391 (+3.4%).

Our calculation: each year's tax revenue (Exhibit A-2) adjusted to FY2025 dollars with the consumer price index (CPI-U, U.S. city average, fiscal-year averages), divided by the Census Bureau's July 1 population estimate. Taxes are paid by businesses and visitors as well as residents, so this is a yardstick, not a household's bill (for that, see what a household pays). The spending comparison uses a government price index instead, because it measures what the City buys.

Property tax

The City levied $72.2M in property tax for FY2025, up from $39.2M in FY2016. Taxable value in the city rose from $11.54B to $22.45B over the same years, so the levy can rise even when the rate falls. The rate has two parts: one for operations and one that repays tax-supported debt. Taxes are assessed by the Potter-Randall Appraisal District and collected by the two counties.

City tax rate per $100 of taxable value

FY2025/26 and FY2026/27 are the adopted rates; the FY2026/27 split between operations and debt is the City's adoption release, which differs from the proposed budget book (property tax storyline).

Levy, taxable value and collections

Rates from Exhibit A-7, values from A-6, levy and collections from A-9 of the FY2025 report. Taxable value jumped in FY2024 ($20.00B, from $15.13B); the report gives the appraisal district as its source and no explanation.

The adopted rate against the no-new-revenue and voter-approval rates

Each year the county tax offices calculate two benchmark rates for the City: the no-new-revenue rate, which would raise about the same property tax from the same properties as the year before, and the voter-approval rate, the highest rate the council can adopt without an election. In 12 of the 12 years from 2015 to 2026, the council adopted a rate above the no-new-revenue rate. In 2021, 2024 and 2025 it adopted the voter-approval rate itself (in 2021, after voters rejected a higher rate at an election; see the property tax storyline).

Per $100 of taxable value. Before tax year 2020 the two rates were called the effective rate and the rollback rate, under different rules. From the City's tax rate notices in its budget books and the tax rate calculation worksheets the Potter and Randall County tax offices post (2020–2026), and, for 2015–2017, budget-book narrative and Potter County's truth-in-taxation summary. *The 2016 and 2017 rollback rates appear only in the county summary and are far above the City's own published rollback rates for 2018 and 2019 (the county summary gives $0.58615 and $0.58432 for those years, against the City's $0.41271 and $0.41021); the documents do not say which calculation each prints. The last column is our arithmetic.

Sales tax

Amarillo's local sales tax is 2 cents on the dollar, on top of the state's 6.25 cents. The Texas Comptroller collects it and sends it back monthly: 1.5 cents goes to the City and half a cent to the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation. In FY2025 that was $80.2M to the City and $26.6M to the AEDC. Sales tax is the City's largest single source of tax revenue.

Comptroller payments to Amarillo, by calendar year (City and AEDC shares together)

Full calendar years only. Monthly payments, and the year to date, are on the Economy page.

What was taxed: taxable sales by industry, 2023

Sales subject to state sales tax inside the city, from the Comptroller, as listed in Exhibit A-10 of the FY2025 report. The eight largest of 21 industries.

Utilities and the airport

The water and sewer, drainage and airport systems run as businesses: their charges pay their own costs and the bonds that built them. Water and sewer charges brought in $101.1M in FY2025 from 72,812 water customers. The City raised water and sewer rates in most years since FY2017 (rates storyline).

Water revenue against the bonds it repays

Water and sewer revenue after operating expenses, divided by that year's principal and interest on water revenue bonds (Exhibit A-16). 1.00× would mean revenue only just covers the payments.

Federal and state grants

The City spent $39.3M from federal awards in FY2021 and $43.2M in FY2025, according to its single audit reports. The peak was FY2022, at $67.9M: that year included $27.7M of American Rescue Plan Act recovery funds, against none in FY2021 (how the ARPA money was allocated). Grants and contributions in the audited report rose $33.7M the same year. The largest steady source is housing vouchers, about $10.8M a year.

From the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal and State Awards in each year's single audit report: money spent from each award during the year (expenditure basis). Grant revenue in the audited report's government-wide statement (the "Grants and other" line above) is a different measure: it is accrual-basis, includes state, local and private grants and donated assets, and is larger every year (table below). The FY2025 schedule is in the report filed with the Federal Audit Clearinghouse, which the City's finance page did not link as of October 29, 2026.

Largest federal programs, FY2021–FY2025

Programs grouped by Assistance Listing number; each year's schedule uses its own titles (for example "Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers" and the COVID-era emergency vouchers under the same number).

Grant spending against grant revenue

The last column is operating plus capital grants and contributions for City government and the utilities (Exhibit A-2, ten-year table in the FY2025 report), not counting the separate bodies further down this page.

What the auditors found

• FY2021: CMMS CPAs & Advisors; no findings; low-risk auditee.
• FY2022: CMMS CPAs & Advisors; no findings; low-risk auditee.
• FY2023: CMMS CPAs & Advisors; no findings; low-risk auditee.
• FY2024: CMMS CPAs & Advisors; 1 financial-statement and 1 federal-program findings; low-risk auditee.
• FY2025: CliftonLarsonAllen; 1 financial-statement and 9 federal-program findings; low-risk auditee; qualified opinion on the Airport Improvement Program, unmodified on the other major programs.

The FY2025 findings are described in the forensic audit storyline; FY2024's ARPA finding in the ARPA storyline.

This year's budget

The General Fund pays for police, fire, streets, parks and most day-to-day services. The proposed FY2026/27 budget expects $285.5M in General Fund revenue, against $270.4M actually received in FY2024/25. Budget figures are kept on the City's budget basis, and cover one fund, so they differ from the audited totals above.

From the proposed FY2026/27 budget book (dated Sept 24, 2026); the adopted book had not been posted when this page was built. Sources over $1 million in the proposed year are listed; 15 smaller ones are combined.

Revenue by fund, FY2026/27 proposed

Each fund's "Total Revenues" line. Some funds count borrowing (bond proceeds) and transfers from other funds as revenue, so the funds do not add up to a City total.

Budget against actual

General Fund revenue came in above the original budget in each of the last 5 years, by $1.6M to $14.7M; sales tax alone beat its budget every year. Spending stayed under the final budget through FY2024; in FY2025 it was $11.6M over.

The General Fund budgetary comparison schedule in each year's audited report (required supplementary information): the budget the council adopted ("original"), the budget as amended during the year ("final") and actual amounts on the budget basis. Revenue differences are against the original budget; spending differences against the final budget. Spending is expenditures by function, before transfers between funds. Differences are our arithmetic.

The AEDC and other City bodies

These bodies are legally separate from the City, but the City Council (or the Mayor) appoints their boards, so the City's audited report includes their finances as "component units." Together they took in $103.1M in FY2025. They are not part of the City totals above.

Program plus general revenues from each year's Statement of Revenues, Expenses, and Changes in Net Position – Component Units. Investment losses count against revenue, which is why the Hospital District's FY2022 figure is small. FY2021–FY2024 were transcribed from scanned pages and checked against each statement's totals. "—": not reported that year.

What a household pays the City

• The City's budget book gives a different water and sewer figure for the same usage; see where the sources differ.
• Proposed for FY2026/27: an 8% water and sewer rate increase, trash from $25.10 to $25.85, and the typical drainage fee from $4.94 to $5.09. The City property tax rate stays at $0.43070; what that means for a home depends on its new appraisal.
• Property tax is billed once a year; it is shown per month here only to compare it with the monthly utility charges.

Where the sources differ

Places where the City's own documents disagree with each other. This page shows each figure as published and says which table it came from.

• Sources differ
  The FY2025 report's assessed-value table (A-6) lists a different City tax rate than its tax-rate table (A-7) for FY2016, FY2018, FY2019, FY2020: A-6 gives $0.34509, $0.35072, $0.36364, $0.36838; A-7 gives $0.35072, $0.36364, $0.36838, $0.38851. A-6 runs a year behind in those years. This page uses A-7, which matches the rates adopted in each year's budget.
• Sources differ
  Hotel occupancy tax for FY2020: the tax-revenue table (A-5) repeats the FY2019 figure, $7,208,732. The report's hotel tax page gives $5,431,173 collected, and the government-wide table (A-2) $4,879,165, which is the hotel tax page's figure less the $552,008 rebated that year.
• Sources differ
  The A-5 table gives hotel tax before rebates in most years (FY2025: $9.9M) but after rebates in FY2023 and FY2024 ($8.4M, $8.2M; the hotel tax page has $9.2M and $9.1M collected). The FY2021 rebate is $686,797 in one table and $677,040 in the other. This page's totals use A-2, which is after rebates throughout.
• Sources differ
  The FY2025 single audit report marks the City as a low-risk auditee (summary of auditor's results, p.14), but the Federal Audit Clearinghouse's data record for the same filing says it was not. The same report lists Refugee Medical Screening ($446,457) under Assistance Listing 93.566, as in earlier years; the Clearinghouse record puts that amount under 93.556, a different program. The documents do not explain either difference. This page follows the report.
• Sources differ
  Grant schedule subtotals: in FY2023 the printed total for state awards from the Texas Department of State Health Services is $357,634, while its lines add to $459,362, which is the figure the schedule's state and grand totals use. In FY2022 the line labeled as the Federal Aviation Administration total ($13,577,270) also includes $4,229,240 of transit grants. The grant tables above use the lines.
• Sources differ
  Water and sewer for a home using 10,000 gallons a month: the proposed FY2026/27 budget book says the bill is "approximately $92.73" a month, but the City's rate sheet gives $85.43 ($44.56 water, $40.87 sewer). The book does not show its arithmetic or say which year's rates it used. The household table above uses the rate sheet.
• Sources differ
  Sewer rates: the FY2025 report's sewer table (A-25) lists a $20.66 base for a 5/8-inch meter and $3.13 per 1,000 gallons, citing Ordinance 7811 "effective October 1, 2024." The rate ordinances printed in the budget books give a $20.66 base and $2.61 residential rate for 2024/25, and the City's rate sheet gives $21.69 and $2.74 from October 1, 2025; $3.13 was the rate for metered commercial wastewater in 2023/24 and 2024/25, and Ordinance 7811 adopted the 2019/20 budget. The table's rule that residential sewer is billed on December–February use, capped at 20,000 gallons, matches the City's billing page. This page uses the rate sheet.
• Sources differ
  Drainage fees: the report states the rate as $3.36 per equivalent residential unit (ERU), but its own table charges $4.94 for a 1.00-ERU home and lists the smallest tier as "0.068 ERU" for $3.37. The budget book's "typical residential" fee is $4.94, which this page uses.
• Sources differ
  Taxable sales for calendar 2024 are listed as $2.30B, little more than half of 2023's $4.05B, while the Comptroller's sales tax payments to Amarillo rose from $100.4M in 2023 to $104.1M in 2024. The report gives no explanation. This page uses 2023 as the latest full year of taxable sales.
• Sources differ
  The separate bodies' FY2025 program revenue is $61,681,345 in their own statement but $61,822,410 in the ten-year table (A-2), which groups some items differently. The table above uses each year's own statement.

Different measures, not errors: the City's sales tax for FY2025 is $80.2M in the audited government-wide statement (accrual basis), $79.6M in the governmental funds table (A-5, modified accrual), and $80.7M as "2025 actual" in the budget book. Each counts the same tax at a different point. Property tax shows the same pattern.