The city of McAllen on Monday gave the green light to a multimillion dollar budget that would pave the way for increased staff and continuing capital projects.

The more than $527 million budget goes into effect in just a matter of days.

“Right now, it’s a tight budget,” said McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos. “We have what we need, and we have a lot of different projects that we’re trying to do, and we first expected that we weren’t able to — but we do. A lot of capital improvement projects.”

Villalobos says some of those projects include a new fire station in Tres Lagos and a dedicated training facility for firefighters.

“Our fire department is excited about the facilities — and of course — Fire Station 8, so we’re very happy about it,” Villalobos said. “As a matter of fact, Fire Station 8 will be ahead of schedule a few years than expected.”

The city’s budget is sitting at more than $520 million dollars, which is up 25 percent from last year’s $421 million. On top of a comprehensive list of projects, the city will be hiring 27 full-time employees in different departments.

McAllen police, for example, will be able to hire two more police officers, on top of two communication specialists.

Villalobos says even with the challenges tied to the pandemic, revenue for the city has increased.

“Commerce never stopped. They closed the bridge for non-essential travel, but as far as commerce goes, people — the trade, everything kept on going, so we were fortunate,” Villalobos said, adding that he hopes international bridges will soon reopen to nonessential travel, which will allow for increased revenue. 

McAllen also approved the property tax rate. Mayor Villalobos reiterated that the rate was not increasing, although homeowners could still see an increase, in the situation that the appraised value of their home increases.