Together, Denton Mayor Perry McNeill and rival Mark Burroughs have spent nearly $84,000 in their hard-fought race for the city’s top elected position.

Campaign finance reports filed Friday at City Hall show the cost of the mayoral race continues to mount.

“It certainly has raised the bar in what it takes to hold local office,” said McNeill, who’s seeking a second term in the June 14 runoff election.

McNeill, who has criticized Burroughs for his level of spending, reported $14,748.53 in expenditures during the period, which covered May 1 to Wednesday. That brings his campaign spending total to $31,378.35.

Burroughs reported $7,265.44 in spending during the period, for a total of $52,504.44.

Both candidates reported at least $15,000 in outstanding loans.

“It’s just phenomenal, the amount of money that’s being generated in this campaign,” said McNeill, 72, a retired professor and engineer. “When the other side is doing that kind of advertising — billboards and all of these things — then if you’re going to be competitive, you have to go out and get additional funds from your supporters.”

Burroughs, 50, a lawyer and former City Council member, said the race to unseat an incumbent takes a lot of money. Burroughs earned the most votes in the four-man race May 10 but fell short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff.

“It doesn’t surprise me that the cost is high from my end because of what I’ve had to overcome in this campaign,” he said. “Not only three other candidates, including an incumbent … but also the campaign against me personally by Mr. [Bob] Clifton.”

Clifton, a mayoral candidate in 2006, has distributed mailers attacking Burroughs over alleged conflicts of interest because his law firm collects overdue taxes for Denton and other local governments.

The campaign finance reports also show:

McNeill reported a $2,865.80 payment to an advertising firm for “collection of population data.” Asked about the expense, the mayor said it covered a portion of the telephone survey he commissioned last month, which Burroughs has called a thinly veiled attack ad. Burroughs said the description on the finance report didn’t accurately reflect the nature of the expense.

McNeill acknowledged that he probably could have worded the description better.

Burroughs’ only reported expense was on May 18, when he paid $7,265.44 to the Crouch Group, a firm handling his campaign communications.

“There’s been nothing dispersed since then,” he said, although he has received one bill for $1,900.

Two other expenses from May were listed on a prior report.

McNeill did not report the full name of some donors, reducing many first names to initials, but said he wasn’t trying to be elusive. “There were so many names there I just started putting initials down to get the thing done,” he said. “If I was trying to hide something, I would have left the addresses off.”

Burroughs reported $14,056.71 in donations, including $2,029.51 from his firm, Sawko & Burroughs.

The next-largest donation, $2,000, came from D&A Horizon Properties L.P. of Decatur, which Burroughs said is run by a longtime client.

McNeill reported $12,870 in donations, including $4,000 from the Texas Association of Realtors’ political action committee.

Also Friday, Burroughs filed a supplemental report with detailed descriptions of his expenses between March 17 and May 1.

McNeill had accused Burroughs of obscuring the nature of his spending by not describing the expenses in his May 2 finance report.

The Texas Election Code requires candidates to report the purpose of expenses that are more than $50.

Early voting is under way through Tuesday at City Hall.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com.

COSTLY RACE

Denton Mayor Perry McNeill and his rival in the June 14 runoff election, lawyer Mark Burroughs, filed campaign finance reports Friday covering activity from May 1 to Wednesday.

Mark Burroughs

Spending this period: $7,265.44

Total spending: $52,504.44

Donations this period: $14,056.71

Total donations: $37,771.71

Outstanding loans: $15,500

Perry McNeill

Spending this period: $14,748.53

Total spending: $31,378.35

Donations this period: $12,870

Total donations: $24,391

Outstanding loans: $15,000