Fort Worth 2027 Budget Public Meeting - August 20, 2026
Fort Worth 2027 Budget Public Meeting - August 20, 2026
City staff and council member presented the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget to residents amid a challenging revenue environment caused by Tarrant Appraisal District's biennial reappraisal plan and historic mid-year value losses. The $3.32 billion operating budget (up 7.5% from FY26) and $1.03 billion capital plan were discussed, with a focus on the $1.15 billion general fund. The city manager announced a proposed 3.2 cent tax rate increase (from 67 to 70.2 cents per $100 valuation) to partially close a $78 million revenue gap, while public comments heavily advocated against service cuts and urged higher investment in libraries, parks, and community programs.
Public Comments & Testimony
- A speaker expressed concern about library cuts, emphasizing their role in early childhood literacy, and urged no reduction in library budgets, staffing, or hours. She noted using the Vivian Lincoln library for a “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” program.
- A speaker advocated for seniors, noting no cap on rents in Texas despite a cap on senior incomes, and asked how seniors can afford decent neighborhoods. The city manager responded that rent control is not allowed in Texas, but the city targets 80–120% area median income housing with voter-approved bond dollars.
- A speaker urged no cuts to libraries, parks, or code enforcement, and stressed that literacy differences between neighborhoods correlate with education funding. He also supported nuisance abatement programs and asked for increased library funding for STEM labs and after-school programs.
- A speaker from Uptown Fort Worth Neighborhood Association asked how to advocate for approved street lighting and pedestrian walkways, and about maintenance of two acres north of Traders Oak Park not part of the park. Staff directed her to contact TPW and parks directors.
- A resident praised the process for finally addressing neglected streets (his street on Samuels Avenue was being paved after decades). He noted coordination issues between road resurfacing and new water line installation causing damage.
- A speaker expressed distrust of Flock cameras and drones used by police, asked about contract end dates and possibility of cancellation. City manager suggested meeting with police to clarify policies and noted the cameras lack facial recognition and are effective for crime solving.
- A speaker asked for an itemized list of budget cuts on the city website so residents know what to advocate for. Staff confirmed it is available on the city’s budget webpage.
- A speaker asked about the proportion of property tax revenue from residential vs. commercial. Staff stated residential (including apartments) is about 65%, down from 15 years ago, but recent residential value losses have shifted toward 50-50.
- A speaker asked about the homeless outreach team (HOPE) being cut. Staff clarified the service is not eliminated but moved from dual-role firefighters to EMS mobile integrated health team, saving overtime costs.
- A speaker advocated for a higher tax rate increase beyond the proposed 3.2 cents, noting the voter-approved tax rate allows up to 3.5% above the no-new revenue rate. He argued that services are being cut while police and fire get contractual raises (8.5% fire, 6% police) and senior homestead caps protect seniors, so residents want services maintained.
- A speaker complimented staff on judicious budget reductions but echoed support for high service standards. He asked what actions businesses or citizens can take to preserve services via adopt-a-park or similar programs. Parks and library foundation partnerships were mentioned.
- A speaker asked how the pavement management fee (not in FY27) will affect the $66 million annual street maintenance funding gap. Lane explained the fee would generate $27.4M starting 2028, enabling a five-year proactive preservation cycle, 50% increase in contracted heavy maintenance, and tripling in-house milling/overlaying.
- A speaker asked if transportation impact fees could be increased to have developers pay more for new roads. Staff noted fees are collected at 68% of potential and can only be used for major streets near new development.
- A speaker asked about the possibility of eliminating the small gap between current tax burden and proposed rate, noting every 1/100 cent adds $110,000. City manager responded the rate was set based on comfort level with reductions, not to leave a specific gap.
- A speaker asked how the Tarrant Appraisal District reappraisal schedule affects values. Staff explained reappraisal is due Jan 2027, which will likely increase values but protests may again reduce them, creating uncertainty.
- A speaker asked about assistive call-taking technology (Axon 911) and its labor savings. Staff confirmed it triages non-emergency calls, reducing need for additional call takers and saving $80–90k per position annually.
Discussion Items
- Budget Overview & Revenue Gap: City staff (Christian Simmons, Director of Fort Worth Lab) presented the FY27 budget. Tarrant County home values fell from FY26 to FY27, causing a $78 million revenue gap (worse than projected $49M). The city implemented early 1% and 3% departmental reductions ($7.8M and $14.5M savings), plus additional cuts, but still faced a $36.9M gap. The city manager proposed a 3.2 cent property tax rate increase to reach 70.2 cents per $100 valuation, resulting in an average home tax bill decrease of $21 (due to falling taxable values).
- Public Safety Prioritization: Police added 76 patrol officers and 30 new corporal positions in patrol to improve promotion paths and training. Fire department moved four HOPE firefighters back to suppression, saving overtime; HOPE services continue via EMS mobile integrated health. Fully funded Axon 911 assistive call-taking program. Police and fire contractual raises (6% and 8.5% respectively) and right-sizing of overtime and fleet budgets were included. EMS subsidy from general fund is ~$30M.
- Community Investment Reductions: Proposed closing the Alliance PetSmart Adoption Center (north Fort Worth), but council directed staff to find alternatives to preserve live release rates. Neighborhood services priority repair program reduced by $75,000 (3% of pay-go). Mobile tool shed program reduced by one person. Neighborhood Improvement Program phased: $1M in year one planning instead of full $4M upfront. Economic development transfer from general fund reduced from $5M to $500K. Parks and libraries sustained some cuts due to public safety prioritization; council workshop on Aug 21 to discuss potential restoration.
- Enterprise & Special Revenue Funds: Water/wastewater continues capital investments; solid waste, stormwater, airports, and parking are self-sustaining with fee increases. CCPD (half-cent sales tax) grows ~5%, adding two school resource officers. EMS special revenue fund budgeted for second full year. Golf courses adding food/beverage and maintenance positions. Community tree planting fund reduction was one-time equipment purchase.
- Fee Increases & Tax Impact: Nine departments recommending fee changes; average resident water bill increase ~$7.90/month. Combined with property tax decrease of $21/year, net effect is about $5/month more for typical household. Average home taxable value drops from FY26 to FY27, so total city portion of tax bill falls despite rate increase.
- Capital Plan: FY27 capital plan $1.03B (mostly water). Five-year plan totals $3.8B. Pay-go capital (7.25 cents of tax rate) generates $85.7M, ~82% for transportation/public works. Maintenance gap for streets is $66M/year; pavement management fee (starting FY28) projected to generate $27.4M.
- Community Questions on Transparency & Future: Staff directed residents to city budget webpage for itemized cuts. Council budget meetings are live-streamed and recorded. Next public hearing Sept 1, final adoption Sept 15.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken at this public meeting; it was a community engagement session.
- Council member noted that council is still deliberating; a budget workshop will be held on August 21 to discuss potential restoration of cuts to libraries, parks, code compliance, and the Alliance PetSmart Adoption Center.
- The city manager confirmed the proposed tax rate increase of 3.2 cents is tentative and subject to council decision by September 15.
- Staff committed to providing detailed information on cuts online and to follow up on specific neighborhood concerns (street lighting, park acreage, railroad spur land ownership) via email.
- The pavement management fee will not be implemented in FY27 but will be pursued for FY28 after further council direction.
- Residents were encouraged to attend the next public input opportunities: budget public hearing on September 1 and a final adoption hearing on September 15.
Meeting Transcript
Hello. Good evening, everybody. Thank you so much for coming out to our uh twenty twenty-seven budget meeting. I appreciate you being here. Uh it's more important this year than any year that I've been on city council to have public engagement in our budget process because it is such a tough budget year. And council is really wrestling with what we cut and what we keep to uh thread that needle of providing you the level of service you deserve while also minimizing any potential uh rate increases to their tax bill. So uh know that we are still wrestling with this budget, so if there's something in it you see tonight that you have concerns about or questions, now's your opportunity to voice that to us because um we are still in the process of molding this budget. Uh again, thank you all so much for coming out. We really are depending on the feedback we get this year, more so than ever to make sure we're providing that adequate budget um for the city and we give you what you want in this tough year. And so with that, um the man who's made it all happen, Mr. Jay Choppa. Thank you. Uh thank you, councilwoman. Good evening, thank you all for being here. Uh really appreciate you all taking the time out of your day uh uh to come to this meeting. And we've had years in the past where we have these meetings we have like 25 staffers and like two people show up, so it's really good to see a a good crowd. Um I'm gonna turn it over here in a minute to Christian Simmons, uh our street uh chief str strategy officer. She's over our what we call the Fort Worth Lab. It's a lab of data and numbers and all that cut they had no budget and data analytics, all those type of things. Um and she'll run through a presentation, but I wanted to start off by just a little introduction as was mentioned this is a toughest year in uh from a budget perspective for the city in uh in probably about 13 or 14 years. Um I was here when we had to deal with the downturn of the economy due to 2008 and the whole mortgage issues and those kind of things, and those are pretty pretty tough budget years as well. Um this year it's not as drastic and I think we've come up with a hopefully you'll see uh with a happy median on what's being proposed. What you're gonna see tonight is the proposed budget to the city council from the city manager and of course my staff that's involved. Um it is we have to balance the budget in Texas. We can't do the deficit budgets that they do at the Fed level, right? So local government we have to come up with a balanced budget. So you'll see that all of the budgets are balanced. The city is basically a conglomerate of a whole lot of different businesses. People uh especially when we're talking about the general fund, people look at the issue with the general fund and uh they see that and they say, well, why can't why can't you take some of that other money and move it and pay for police or pay for fire or pay for uh community centers and it's because you can't. Uh it's it's legal issues. So the aviation, for instance, their revenues have to stay with aviation, golf, their revenues stay with golf, the water department utility, water stays that revenue stays with you th those utilities. We don't have any issues really in those areas. Uh the general funds where we have um the issues and it's really tied to a property tax values or property values overall. Um with that in mind, I'm gonna turn it over to Christy Ann. She does a great job of of kind of breaking it down, going through the whole process. The majority of the discussion's on the general fund because that's usually what folks want to talk about. But as you go along, if you have a question as she's going through the slides, raise your hand, we'll bring you a mic so you can ask your question. This is being live streamed and it's also being recorded so that anybody can go back and look at it. Uh this is the fourth fourth of our 10 public meetings. We're having one in each district. And so if you if you uh uh miss it, you can come back, you can tell folks that you know that couldn't make one, they can look go online and look at any of those uh as well. So I'm gonna turn over to Christian and thank you again for being here. Thank you. Oh, I don't need that. I'm used to going because I'm so short. And that's why I can't stand behind the podium either. I can't be back there. You can't even see me. I'll be like this talking to you. But I know, yeah.
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