Amid slowing property value increases and declining revenues, Fort Worth is staying the course in its fiscal year 2025 budget.
Fort Worth City Council members unanimously approved keeping the property tax rate flat for the next year, ensuring it remains below the no-new-revenue rate. Prioritizing a flat tax rate, which council members hope will translate to greater tax relief for residents, meant cutting funding to a neighborhood improvement program, eliminating vacant staff positions and increasing salary savings in a slim general fund budget.
After the vote, Mayor Mattie Parker praised city staff for 鈥樷�渄rafting what has been one of our best budgets in a really difficult year.鈥�
鈥淭o my colleagues on council, you helped us find consensus on a budget very early on, and we should be proud of that,鈥� Parker said. 鈥淓specially as you look across the country and there鈥檚 a lot of division, working with you has been a pleasure. We鈥檝e done some big things in this budget with revenues down at the same time, which I know we鈥檙e all proud of.鈥�
The $1.057 billion general fund budget approved by council includes 8,196 total authorized positions. It is the last that David Cooke will oversee in his role as city manager after in February 2025. Throughout his , council members have praised Cooke for his fiscal conservatism and skill at managing the city鈥檚 budget.
How much will I pay in city of Fort Worth property taxes?
A resident with a homestead exemption and a $200,000 home will pay $1,076.
A resident with a homestead exemption and a $300,000 home will pay $1,614.
A resident with a homestead exemption and a $400,000 home will pay $2,152.
Cooke threads needle on final budget as city manager
In his initial 2025 budget proposal to council members, Cooke wanted to for the first time since 1995. He proposed raising the rate to 67.73 cents per $100 of assessed value 鈥� up by .48 cents compared to last year.
At the end of August, the entire council , saying they would not support raising the tax rate. They requested that the city鈥檚 tax rate remain below the no-new-revenue rate and stay flat at 67.25 cents per $100 valuation.
鈥淥ur residents continue to voice growing concerns around their property tax burden and overall housing affordability,鈥� the letter stated. 鈥淕iven the economic uncertainty surrounding inflation and cost of living, we believe we must continue our over decade long effort at lowering the property tax rate while also providing superior services to our community.鈥�
The letter followed a June vote by City Council to by $20,000. Residents over 65 years old and those with disabilities in Fort Worth can apply for and claim a $60,000 property tax exemption from the city this year, up from the previous $40,000 cap.
In the August letter, council members also requested that Cooke raise the minimum wage for city staff to $18 per hour 鈥� up from $15.45 per hour 鈥� and continue to prioritize public safety and street maintenance efforts. The request came after months of advocacy from local labor organizers and several council members, who .
That minimum wage increase will happen, but not until early next year. The city will first increase the minimum wage to $16.07 starting Oct. 1, then go through the process of handing out performance-based raises, Chief Transformation Officer Christianne Simmons told the Report. After that process is complete, the minimum wage will rise to $18 in February.
Cooke previously said his proposed tax rate increase, which would have fueled a $1.062 billion general fund budget, was necessary to cover an , plus increases to police and fire, performance pay and the pay-as-you-go fund. It would also help finance the switch .
After council鈥檚 vote to adopt the budget, Cooke said this year鈥檚 budget process was one of the smoothest of the 11 budgets he鈥檚 worked on during his tenure with Fort Worth.
鈥淧art of what made it smooth, I think, was the consensus of the council on the property tax rate,鈥� Cooke told the Report. 鈥淪o that made it easier to balance the budget. Everybody was accepting and comfortable with the changes that were made to balance it.鈥�
He added that meeting council members鈥� requests when they pushed back on his original proposal wasn鈥檛 difficult.
鈥淚鈥檝e said this before, balancing a budget is not necessarily that hard,鈥� Cooke said. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to live with the choices and trade-offs that you make, and if the council鈥檚 comfortable with those choices and trade-offs, then that鈥檚 fine.鈥�
Council pares back neighborhood improvement program
To meet council鈥檚 demand that the tax rate remain flat, the adopted budget in half. Cooke launched the program in 2017 with the goal of improving underserved neighborhoods鈥� vitality through capital improvements such as new or repaired sidewalks, streetlights and roads, local park updates and police cameras.
Council members across the dais have praised Cooke鈥檚 efforts to reinvest in neglected areas of the city, including Stop Six and Northside, through the program.
Since its inception, the program has targeted a total of nine neighborhoods for improvement, with one neighborhood selected per year until 2023. That year, City Council approved the program鈥檚 expansion, increasing neighborhood participation from one per year to two per year.
With the adopted 2025 budget, the program will revert to a one neighborhood per year strategy.
District 2 council member Carlos Flores told the Report he was comfortable with reducing funding to the program in order to give Kacey Bess, who was in August, time to settle into her role, assess her staff and department needs and catch up on the program鈥檚 spending.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still funding the neighborhood improvement program, but to give them time to catch up, to get an assessment of what they need to do in-house in their department, we鈥檒l scale back,鈥� Flores said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not to say that鈥檚 there permanently to stay 鈥� we鈥檙e just doing it for the time being.鈥�
Despite City Council increasing funding to the program year over year, staff have struggled to spend funds in a timely manner, Cooke said in August. Staff are expected to spend the allocated funds for each neighborhood within a two-year time frame.
鈥淲e are at a point where, I won鈥檛 say we鈥檙e challenged, but we鈥檙e challenged in our ability to spend that money at a faster pace,鈥� Cooke told council members at an Aug. 27 budget work session. 鈥淲e have to catch up on these other neighborhoods as we talk about what neighborhoods we add in the upcoming fiscal year.鈥�
Budget invests in street maintenance, EMS transition
While the 2025 budget is more conservative in its investments, the plan approved by council members does include funding for two big city priorities: improved street maintenance and a transition to a fire-based EMS system.
The budget includes about $10 million to repair cracks, potholes and other pressing street issues. The city has over 8,000 miles of street surface, and nearly 5,000 miles are . Rapid growth and inflation have contributed to historical underfunding of street maintenance needs.
Earlier this year, city staff proposed imposing a new fee on property owners to fund that maintenance, which would have increased residents鈥� city service bills by an . The fee would have helped address a between the funding necessary for improvements to Fort Worth鈥檚 roads versus the amount of money on hand.
After council pushback, staff in May and said they would evaluate other funding options.
In addition to the street maintenance investments, the budget sets aside $3.5 million for its new EMS system starting in July 2025. The City Council in May this year to dissolve longtime EMS provider MedStar and switch to a fire-based EMS system. In that system, the fire department will house employees whose sole role is to respond to medical emergencies.
District 9 council member Elizabeth Beck said this budget cycle was much harder than ones she鈥檚 participated in the past. In prior years, she said, the city鈥檚 revenues were up, allowing city leaders to make greater investments and big changes. This year, the council had to pare back.
鈥淭his is a lean year, so there was less to play with. It was really about holding what we had, and making sure that we got done what needed to get done,鈥� Beck told the Report. 鈥淏ut what you saw was a council that was unified in the fact that we want to keep your tax rate as low as possible.鈥�
Cecilia Lenzen and Emily Wolf are government accountability reporters for the Fort Worth Report. Contact them at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org and emily.wolf@fortworthreport.org.
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