Sherman's combined utility rate lowest among compared area cities, budget records show

SHERMAN — Sherman's combined charge for water, wastewater and solid waste came in the lowest among the Collin and Grayson county cities in a comparison the city ran, according to the July 20 City Council packet, which lists the review as a presentation by City Manager Zachary Flores. Separate budget-planning records point to a tighter financial stretch ahead for the funds that pay for those services.

The packet scheduled the rate review as an informational item and asked the council for no action. It framed the review as a look at Sherman's enterprise-rate position against other municipalities in Grayson and Collin counties, timed to the city's work on its next budget.

For readers in Gainesville, the comparison carries a point of local reference. The packet's solid-waste table groups Gainesville with Sherman and Denison as cities that run collection themselves, while most of the other listed Collin and Grayson county cities contract the service to outside providers. Plano appears in the table under both a city operation and Republic Services.

The July 1, 2026 rate-comparison presentation attached to the packet measured the cities' combined water, wastewater and solid-waste charges. It placed Sherman's combined figure $6.67 below the next-lowest city on the list and $43.73 under the average combined rate for the Grayson County cities in the comparison.

That review reached the council during Sherman's budget season. The city's budget calendar sets a schedule running from April through August 2026, with dates for budget planning, the capital improvement program, a council workshop, presentation of a draft budget and proposed tax rate, and final action on the plan.

Budget-planning documents also show a difficult outlook. Staff records show FY2026 revenue weakening across the general, utility and solid-waste funds, and they mark the years from FY2027 through FY2031 as carrying significant challenges for all three funds.

Those documents also detail the solid-waste fund. The record states that Sherman raised solid-waste rates in FY2025, increasing commercial collection 5 percent and residential collection 20 percent, a change that moved the residential rate from $12.75 to $15.30. Staff wrote that even after that increase, residential solid waste still fell short of covering its costs by about $1.7 million a year if distributions from TASWA held at their current level, and that the residential rate stayed at roughly half of the peer average.

The July 20 briefing set no new rates. The budget calendar lists later steps for the draft budget, proposed tax rate and final action.