The city's savings cushion

In short

• Savings free to use, Sept. 30, 2025: $26.8 million in the main fund.¹
• As a share of a year’s main-fund spending: 39.6%. The city’s rule asks for at least 25%.²
• Five years earlier (2021): $22.7 million.³

How it works

• The main fund pays for daily city services like police, fire, parks and streets upkeep.
• Savings “free to use” is money not set aside for anything. Audits call it “unassigned.”³ See Fund balance.
• The city’s rule. Its policy says the main fund’s savings should be at least 25% of the yearly operating budget.²

What the numbers show

Sept. 30	Main-fund savings free to use	All main-fund savings
2021	$22.7 million	$29.0 million
2022	$17.7 million	$26.2 million
2023	$20.3 million	$30.6 million
2024	$23.9 million	$37.3 million
2025	$26.8 million	$41.7 million

Source: the city’s audit, Table 4.³

In 2025, all main-fund savings were 61.7% of a year’s main-fund spending. The part free to use was 39.6%.²

The other side

• Savings are planned to go down. The city’s newest budget plans to spend down savings in 2025-26 for one-time projects. See The 2026-27 budget. That budget counts savings a different way, so its numbers do not match this table.
• The 2022 drop was mostly a paper loss on investments, not overspending. See Value for money.
• More is not always better. Savings well above the rule are tax money not used to cut taxes or pay for services. Savings below the rule leave less room for a storm or a bad year.

Questions to ask

• How far does the city expect savings to fall this year?
• What is the city’s plan if savings near the floor in its policy?²

Changes to this page

• Nov. 2, 2026: We changed wording so it says no more than our sources show.
• Nov. 2, 2026: Rewrote the questions to ask so each is open, neutral and addressed to the public body.

What we still don’t know

• The audited savings at Sept. 30, 2026. That audit is not out yet.

Footnotes

1. City of Leander, Annual Financial Report, year ended Sept. 30, 2025, General Fund balance sheet: unassigned $26,756,255. Public copy: https://emma.msrb.org/P11938164.pdf ↩

2. Same report, management’s discussion and analysis: unassigned fund balance “39.6% of total General Fund expenditures”; total fund balance “61.7% of that same amount”; policy “a minimum of 25% of the annual operating budget.” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Same report, statistical section, Table 4, fund balances of governmental funds: General Fund unassigned $22,694,421 (2021), $17,733,185 (2022), $20,346,004 (2023), $23,884,711 (2024), $26,756,255 (2025); total General Fund $29,041,883, $26,238,780, $30,643,471, $37,306,929, $41,655,149. ↩ ↩² ↩³