The absence of two Tarrant County commissioners delayed the planned decrease of the hospital tax rate.
Commissioners Roderick Miles Jr. and Alisa Simmons were not in attendance at the Sept. 16 meeting. Despite having a majority, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court was unable to vote on adopting the new hospital tax rate, which was capped by the court at 16.50 cents per $100 earlier this month.
This would be the third year the commissioners court lowers the hospital tax rate, which was set at 18.25 cents in 2024 and 19.45 cents in 2023.
Texas law requires four commissioners be present to adopt the tax rate.
The county’s overall tax rate, set to be lowered at Tuesday’s meeting, was also delayed due to the absence of Miles and Simmons, the Democratic members of the court.
In a statement sent to the Fort Worth Report, Miles said cutting the county tax rate failed to reflect the “growing needs” of the community.
“Cutting for the sake of cutting is not leadership,” Miles said. His statement did not directly reference the hospital tax rate or the reason for breaking quorum at the Sept. 16 meeting.
Simmons said her absence was “not a political ploy” but rather a “a legal and necessary act of conscience” to force the adoption of a more reasonable tax rate.
Despite mostly referencing the county tax rate in her statement, she also said the Republican majority “pushed to starve” JPS Health Network by lowering the hospital tax rate.
“For taxpayers, today’s outcome ensures property owners still receive a tax cut without the
county judge forcing an even deeper, more destructive rate,” Simmons said in her statement.
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare said he plans to schedule a special meeting on Sept. 22 to vote for the new tax rate.
JPS is the county’s public hospital and receives funding from taxes. The JPS board of managers approved a $1.77 billion operating budget for 2026 in August.
The budget assumed a tax rate of 17.417 cents per $100. The rate was below the no-new-revenue tax rate, which would generate the same revenue as the previous year.
If the proposed hospital tax rate of 16.50 cents is not passed by Oct. 1, the no-new-revenue rate of 17.792 cents per $100 will automatically go into effect.
Commissioners approved JPS’s new budget at the Sept. 16 meeting. Dr. Karen Duncan, president and CEO of JPS, told commissioners she did not think the new tax rate would impact hospital services.
Miles and Simmons were the only two commissioners who voted against setting the rate at 16.50 cents at the Sept. 3 meeting. O’Hare introduced the motion earlier this month because of what he saw as inaccurate net income projections by the hospital.
O’Hare said JPS’s net income over the last six years ended up higher than the hospital originally estimated. For the fiscal year 2024, despite originally estimating $109 million in net income, the hospital system made $336 million. The following year, with an original estimate of $138 million, JPS reported $238 million in net income.
“We see that they are underbudgeting the profit by literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars,” O’Hare said.
JPS property tax rates compared
The average taxable value of a home this year is $276,630. Last year, it was $276,658.
The average homeowner paid $504.90 to the hospital district in 2024.
This year, a 16.5 tax rate would result in a bill of $456.44.
A 17.792 tax rate would see a bill of $492.18.
At that meeting, Commissioner Manny Ramirez noted that the profit margins are relatively insignificant compared to JPS’s multibillion dollar budget. He also said the profit isn’t benefiting hospital executives but rather stored for future use.
“It’s not a private company that’s making profit. It’s a business that’s planning for capital expenditures,” Ramirez said. The Republican ended up voting for the rate.
Simmons voted against lowering the tax rate every time since 2023 and said commissioners were “penalizing good leadership.”
Duncan said at the Sept. 3 meeting profit discrepancies relate to federal and state support for JPS during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She noted revenue estimates for hospital systems is never an exact science. She said uncertainty relating to revenue streams may increase.
“I think this next year, given some of the policy change at the federal and state level, we do not know,” Duncan said. “So we feel the risk is higher.”
Ismael M. Belkoura is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.