Fort Worth stayed relatively on budget during the last fiscal year, undercollecting and underspending roughly the same amounts of its $2.79 billion spending plan and ending the year with a $2.1 million shortfall.
Officials are auditing how much money the city brought in and spent over the 2025 fiscal year, which ended in October. Unaudited estimates were presented to the City Council at a work session on Tuesday.
Of the money budgeted, nearly $1.06 billion went into the city’s general fund, which is used to pay for most public-facing city services.
Fort Worth brought in roughly $1.07 billion in revenue over the fiscal year for its general fund — about $13.9 million less than planned, Chief Transformation Officer Christianne Simmons told City Council.
To balance that out, the city spent about $11.8 million less than planned, Simmons said, with those expenses totaling $963.1 million.
That left Fort Worth’s general fund with a shortfall that the city covered with its over $300 million in reserve funds.
What impacted revenue and spending?
Smaller than expected property tax and sales tax revenue drove much of the shortfall as those are the city’s biggest revenue sources. Those sources underperformed by about 2%, which added up to a shortfall of about $16.9 million, Simmons said.
This was slightly offset by higher revenue from other sources, including licensing and permitting.
The city also owed more than expected on residents’ delinquent tax cases, which happen when a resident’s property value is under dispute. The city expected to earn a net positive from outstanding cases but ended up owing more to residents.
Meanwhile, city officials said revenue was also short because of the Tarrant Appraisal District’s shift to a two-year appraisal cycle, which started this year and froze property tax values for 2025.
People spent less than expected in Fort Worth over the summer, negatively impacting the city’s sales tax revenue, Simmons said, tracing the movement to the year’s general economic uncertainty.
From 2022 through 2024, Fort Worth’s sales tax revenue grew an average of 8.3% each year. This summer, however, growth slowed to an average of 0.55%, Simmons said. The fiscal year ended seeing 4.1% growth, 2 percentage points shy of what was expected.
Simmons said the 2026 budget is based on a 6.17% growth, and her team is monitoring and forecasting the revenue each month.
The police and fire departments overspent by $2.5 million and $1.2 million, respectively, Simmons said.
The police department’s overspending is primarily due to higher-than-expected overtime payments as it struggles with staffing shortages, while the fire department’s was due to deployments to Central Texas in July to help with search and rescue efforts during disastrous flooding. The fire department’s overtime will be reimbursed by the state.
The city saved money on expenses mid-year as it became apparent that revenue would come up short, she said.
In the summer, Fort Worth rolled out a hiring freeze for all positions except those related to public safety. City departments had to cut back discretionary spending as well.
Simmons said city staff are using lessons learned and surprises that came up in the last year to manage the 2026 budget and plan out 2027.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.
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