COMBINE — The city budgeted $3,020 in net municipal-court revenue for fiscal 2024 but reported $18,558.61 — approximately 6.15 times its estimate.
The five-year financial comparison shows a longer rise, rather than an isolated one-year jump. It does not establish whether increased citations, improved collections or payments on older cases drove that growth.
Five Years of Court Revenue
| Fiscal year | Gross court fees | Net court revenue* |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $4,474 | $3,411 |
| 2021 | $2,868 | $2,183 |
| 2022 | $6,058 | $4,552 |
| 2023 | $9,677 | $7,387 |
| 2024 | $24,679 | $18,559 |
Net figures subtract state comptroller remittances and the report’s FTA collection-fee deductions. Amounts are rounded.
Net revenue increased approximately 151 percent from 2023 to 2024. The 2024 budget estimate was also below actual net revenue in both 2022 and 2023.
That combination matters: the sixfold budget comparison reflects both a substantial revenue increase and a forecast below recent results.
Revenue Does Not Count Tickets
A dollar total cannot establish how many citations officers issued or how many cases the court resolved.
More new cases could generate additional revenue. But collections could also rise without a comparable increase in citations if defendants paid older balances, completed payment plans or resolved previously pending cases. Changes in the mix of cases and amounts collected could also affect receipts.
These are possible explanations, not findings about Combine.
To distinguish among them, a meaningful court-activity comparison would need several years of new filings, dispositions, pending cases and collections, together with payment records identifying the age of the underlying cases.
The Texas Office of Court Administration maintains a database containing municipal-court filings, dispositions and collection totals. Its reporting portal cautions that courts may not have submitted every monthly report, making completeness checks necessary before comparing annual totals.
Was the Budget Estimate Too Low?
The financial history raises a reasonable forecasting question: why did the city anticipate less net court revenue than it had received in either of the two preceding years?
The published financial figures do not answer that question. A cautious estimate might reflect expectations that earlier receipts would not recur. It might also reflect an outdated assumption. Determining which explanation applies requires the budget’s supporting calculations or an explanation from city officials.
The distinction is important. A revenue forecast measures what officials expect to receive; it does not measure the court’s workload or establish an enforcement objective.
What the Records Establish
Combine’s court revenue substantially exceeded its forecast, and the increase followed earlier growth. The available financial comparison supports scrutiny of the budget estimate and the source of additional receipts.
It does not support a conclusion that police dramatically increased ticket-writing, that a collection campaign cleared old cases or that the city pursued enforcement to raise money.
Those conclusions require court-activity and case-payment records that have not been verified for this report.
