McKinney firefighters will keep answering calls in the unincorporated areas around the city, but the bill for that work now goes to a new taxing district, and it is much larger than what Collin County used to pay.
The City Council on Monday approved an interlocal agreement with Collin County Emergency Services District No. 1, according to the city's legislative record of the Oct. 5 meeting. The district will pay the city $193,147.75 for a six-month term that started Oct. 1.
For comparison, the city received $63,332 from Collin County for the full 2024-25 fiscal year for the same kind of coverage, according to a staff summary from Fire Chief Paul Dow's department.
How the old arrangement worked
For years, McKinney and other fire departments in the county have responded to emergencies in unincorporated areas under contracts with Collin County. Since 2013 the county has set aside $950,000 a year for those departments, divided by the square miles and population each one covered, the staff summary says.
McKinney's share of that territory is the unincorporated land inside its extraterritorial jurisdiction. Firefighters answered 683 calls there in fiscal 2025, which works out to roughly $93 per call at the county's rate.
