Fort Worth City Council members lowered property taxes and increased city service fees Tuesday as they adopted a $3 billion budget outlining how to spend taxpayer dollars over the next year.
Council members voted 10-1 to approve the city’s budget and tax rate for the next fiscal year with minimal discussion. Council member Alan Blaylock, who represents parts of far north Fort Worth, was the lone dissenting vote.
“This budget reflects the priorities of the city of Fort Worth and the residents we hear from,” Mayor Mattie Parker said. “This is an incredibly well-managed, well-run city, but we do this on behalf of our residents and making sure we hear them clearly.”
The new tax rate is 67 cents per $100 of assessed value, a decrease of a quarter of a cent from the current rate of 67.25 cents. This is the lowest tax rate in over three decades, and it will lower the average homeowner’s tax bill by about $20 per year, according to city estimates.
However, fees for some city services — such as solid waste disposal, wastewater services and environmental protection — will increase. Officials estimated the average Fort Worth homeowner will pay about $56.88 more in fees. When combined with the lower tax bill, the net increase amounts to $36.55 over the year, or $3.05 per month.
After the vote, Blaylock said he wanted a lower tax rate than the approved reduction, as property taxes are a common concern he hears from constituents.
“It’s what I’ve done every single year I’ve been on council, just continuing to keep my promise to my constituents.”
Under the approved tax rate, Fort Worth will raise nearly $818 million in revenue, which accounts for the majority of the city’s $1.1 billion general fund that pays for most public-facing services, such as police and parks.
The fiscal year 2026 budget outlines how city dollars will be spent from Oct. 1, 2025, to Sept. 30, 2026. City officials focused on five key areas in the budget: economic development, community investment, community safety, responsible growth and organizational changes.
Council members approved the new spending plan after swearing in Eddie García as Fort Worth’s new police chief. García’s annual salary is $306,000 — about $20,000 less than he was paid at his most recent job as an assistant city manager in Austin. His first official day is Sept. 17.
Fort Worth’s public safety spending
García’s department is the largest item in the 2026 budget, with about $460.1 million devoted to police. More than half of the department’s budget pays for the salaries and benefits of 1,896 officers and 574 staffers.
The fire department’s budget is about half as large as the police department’s at $226.8 million. Together, the two departments make up about half of the general fund’s spending.
Fort Worth’s newly launched emergency medical services, which is under the fire department but listed as a separate budget item, will cost nearly $90 million. Most of that, about 63%, is paid for by service charges to patients and insurance.
City streets and park improvements
Fort Worth’s third-biggest spending item goes toward transportation and improving streets.
About $112.3 million goes toward transportation and public works. That department manages services such as street repair, transit coordination and traffic safety programs. Officials estimated that $32 million of that money is set aside for street maintenance, according to budget estimates this summer.
City staff told council members in June that Fort Worth was short an estimated $66.1 million needed for annual street maintenance. To fill that gap, which would help prevent the need for many major road overhauls over the decades, staff floated the idea of a $6 monthly street maintenance fee. Ultimately, that proposal did not move forward.
Fort Worth has about $79 million to maintain and develop the city’s park system, which encompasses about 13,500 acres of land across more than 300 parks. That includes a $175,000 increase to support Parker’s Good Natured initiative, which launched in 2023 with the goal of preserving 10,000 acres of open space across the city by 2028.
Neglected neighborhoods and small businesses
The 2026 budget continues funding for infrastructure improvements in historically underserved neighborhoods through the city’s Neighborhood Improvement Program.
The program has provided targeted neighborhoods, such as Las Vegas Trail and Ash Crescent, with upgrades such as new or repaired sidewalks, streetlights and roads, local park updates and police cameras.
Last year, council members rolled back funding for the program — targeting only one neighborhood per year instead of two — after staff reported challenges in spending dollars and executing projects on time. Then-city manager David Cooke said staff turnover made it difficult to execute projects within the expected two-year time frame.
Neighborhood services director Kacey Bess said in August that her department was still catching up on spending and would need additional staffing to successfully tackle two neighborhoods per year.
This year, council members discussed increasing funding for the program, but city staffers said they are still catching up on spending funds from previous years.
The budget eliminated funding for Fort Worth’s diversity and inclusion department, which received about $2.8 million last year. In August, council members voted 7-4 to suspend the department and all of the city’s DEI programs to comply with President Donald Trump’s efforts to remove DEI from federal spending. Officials said the suspension was necessary to preserve the $40.6 million in federal grants that Fort Worth receives annually.
Under the suspension, diversity and inclusion staff were transferred to other departments, such as economic development and human resources, which received respective funding increases of about $1.5 million and $1.3 million to support the shifts.
Throughout the summer, city officials prepared the budget while bracing for a $16.7 million shortfall after the Tarrant Appraisal District approved a reappraisal plan that froze residential property values for 2025. However, appraisal values came in about $4 billion higher than expected, offsetting the expected shortfall.
Property tax revenue makes up the majority of the city’s primary operating budget.
Cecilia Lenzen and Drew Shaw are government accountability reporters for the Fort Worth Report. Contact them at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org and drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org.
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