Budget Work Session on FY2027 Budget – May 5, 2026
Budget Work Session on FY2027 Budget – May 5, 2026
The Fort Worth City Council held a budget work session on May 5, 2026, from 11:05 a.m. to 11:52 a.m., to kick off the FY2027 budget process. The meeting focused on the budget timeline, a projected $49 million budget gap, and strategies to close it, including departmental reductions and early community engagement. Staff presented updates on the budget process and a new breakdown of general fund revenues by source, highlighting that public safety consumes more than 100% of operating property tax revenue.
Updates on FY27 Budget Process
- Chief Transformation Officer Christianne Simmons and Assistant Finance Director Cristi Lemon presented the budget timeline: departmental budgets submitted May 1, budget blitz in early June, certified tax rolls in late July, recommended budget presentation around August 11, and adoption in September.
- The current budget gap is approximately $49 million, driven by revenues growing slower than expenses. Key drivers include a 40% increase in health fund contributions ($17.5 million), increased EMS subsidy ($6 million), and placeholder for pay study implementation ($7 million).
- Departments were asked to reduce their targets by 1% (about $7.8 million total) and submit 3% reduction packages (about $14 million, excluding civil service salaries for public safety). After these reductions, a $27 million gap remains.
- Simmons proposed an early budget priorities survey to residents via Connect Fort Worth and other channels, to gather input on priorities and willingness to adjust services or taxes. Council Member Peoples supported the survey; Mayor Parker suggested council input on survey questions; Council Member Martinez recommended including the survey on summer program applications.
- Council Member Hall expressed concern about applying uniform cuts across departments, noting that the fire department and EMS may need special consideration. City Manager Chapa clarified that EMS is a separate fund and the subsidy is fully funded from non-departmental.
General Fund Priorities by Revenue Source
- Assistant Finance Director Brady Kirk presented a new analysis showing how general fund revenues are allocated to departments. He used an analogy to illustrate that public safety (police, fire, EMS subsidy, emergency management) consumes more than 100% of the operating property tax revenue (45 cents of the 52.25 cent general fund rate). Sales tax (one cent of the city's two cents) then funds about two-thirds of remaining departments, and other tax revenues (growing at less than 1% per year) fund the remaining 14 departments.
- 92% of general fund revenue comes from general sources (property tax, sales tax, other taxes) with limited control except for the property tax rate.
- Mayor Parker emphasized that expense growth reflects basic city services and that communication should frame revenue needs as funding for those services.
- Council Member Nettles requested that if tax rates change, staff clearly articulate what services would be provided or cut.
- Council Member Lauersdorf suggested bringing in active HOA leaders to help explain the budget and dispel misinformation, particularly after the bond election.
Key Outcomes
- Council Member Nettles requested a spreadsheet showing line-item cuts for each department. Staff agreed to provide a summary when the recommended budget is presented.
- Mayor Pro Tem Flores requested an informal report to examine whether assisted living centers have sufficient staff or if inadequate staffing is offloading calls to fire and EMS. City Manager Chapa said he would check with the city attorney on authority.
- Council Member Lauersdorf wants to invite HOA leaders to a future budget workshop for better neighborhood outreach.
- No formal votes were taken; the session was informational. The next budget work session is scheduled for May 12, focusing on the health fund.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. And I will call us to order is just after 11. Welcome to our city council work session specific to the budget. And I will immediately turn it over to Jay Choppa. But before I do that, I want to sincerely thank all city staff, those that are in the room and those that are working across the city for your help in passing successfully all of our bond propositions. I think that deserves a round of applause. But those of us around this table know that our city staff worked tirelessly to transparently explain that bond election, justify it, and we just really appreciate all your hard work. So thank you. Jay, over to you. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks for that recognition of staff. They are hardworking group. I especially want to thank the Fort Worth Lab, Christiane and April Rose specifically. They did a lot of the heavy pooling there at the end. So thank you all. As far as the workshop today, this is the start basically of the of the overall process for the city council. The staff started a couple three months ago pulling things together. As you already know, it is going to be a tough budget year just based on current projections as we're looking at the whole thing. What I would ask is for you to have patience to work through the process. A lot of this is information for you to hopefully provide you a depth of understanding and the different areas of the of the budget so that when we actually put together the recommendation and present it in August that you'll have enough knowledge to be able to make decisions and give us feedback as we move forward. So with that, I believe Christiane's gonna kick off the show. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I like today. I like budget work sessions. So some of you might remember a couple of years ago we made this shift in the way that we deliver budget information earlier in the year. So prior to a couple of years ago, we'd present the recommended budget in August, and then we'd respond to your inquiries and sort of schedule some work session sessions from there over the next four to six weeks. Um a couple of years ago we started doing them in April and May, just realizing that the budget's big and even the revenue picture was getting a little more complicated a couple of years ago with some of the appraisal district activities and other other drivers. And so we decided, you know, we'll start communicating a little earlier and bring you along the way, hopefully give you, like Jay said, a depth of understanding that's helpful um to you and to staff, and as you communicate in your districts to your constituents, sort of what what makes up the budget. So this year continues that tradition. It is frankly a little more work for staff, and I always like to give the caveat at the first session. Um, you know, this is a work in progress. So we're bringing you really along in real time. So numbers are shifting and assumptions shift as we get more information. So thank you for your patience. We do think the juice is worth the squeeze with the extra early work sessions. I hope it is for you too. Um, so I'm going to, you're gonna hear from both of the Fort Worth Lab assistant um budget directors today. Christy Lemon oversees the operating capital budgets and those associated analyst teams. Um, and then Brady Kirk, you'll hear from him on revenue. So I'm going to let us get to work and turn it over first to Christy Lemon, and then I'll come back sort of at the end of her presentation to um introduce Brady's topic. But we're excited that you're here. Thank you for being here. And I'll turn it over to Christy. Good morning. Pleased to be here. Christy Lemon, I'm the assistant director, um, as Christine mentioned in the Fort Worth Lab. Gonna just the conversation today is really about context as we go forward in the budget process. So where we're starting, um, kind of challenges we're seeing right away. Um, so this is our kind of overall timeline that gets us to adoption in September.
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