Gov. Greg Abbott touted Tarrant County as a model for lowering property taxes as Republican county commissioners applauded his plan to help local governments across Texas provide permanent tax relief.
County Judge Tim O’Hare and county commissioners Manny Ramirez and Matt Krause presented the governor with an honorary resolution they adopted earlier this month to support his tax reform plan during a news conference Thursday in Fort Worth.
Abbott’s platform of cutting taxes, a focus of his reelection campaign, would eliminate school property taxes, limit spending by local governments who collect property taxes, require two-thirds voter approval to allow property tax increases, and cap residential property appraisals at a 3% increase per year.
The governor visited Tarrant County as commissioners prepare to adopt a roughly $834 million county budget and lower the property tax rate for the fourth consecutive year. Earlier this month, commissioners discussed a decrease that would save about 17 cents for the average homeowner per year.
“It is very achievable for jurisdictions across the entire state to do exactly what Tarrant County has done, and that is to cut property taxes while fully funding operations in a robust, growing city like Fort Worth and county like Tarrant County,” Abbott told reporters on the 12th floor of The Fort Worth Club. Addressing commissioners, he added, “I can't thank you guys enough for the example that you've set to show other leaders across the state.”
O’Hare, who is seeking his second term in November, listed several accomplishments since taking office in 2023, including cutting the county tax rate by a cumulative 17%, the public hospital district tax rate by 29.2% and the county budget by $70 million.
“We've done it with good fiscal management, sound fiscal policy, and we've provided the property tax relief that Tarrant County residents and businesses needed,” O’Hare said.
The Democratic members of the commissioners court, Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles, were not present at the conference.
Simmons, who is running against O’Hare for the county judge seat, said in a statement that although she welcomes a conversation about property taxes, the topic is “too important to be reduced to a press conference.” She raised questions about whether county revenue adequately covers recurring expenses, whether financial reserves are being used to pay for ongoing obligations and whether the county is deferring necessary infrastructure investments to reduce the tax rate.
“County expenses do not disappear because politicians want to announce a lower tax rate,” Simmons’ statement read. “Moving expenses between funds or pushing costs into future years does not eliminate them. It simply moves the bill.”
At the conference, the three Republican commissioners maintained that county services have not suffered under recent tax reductions. Instead, they said, county funding has increased for essential services such as law enforcement and the district attorney’s office.
O’Hare said the county has given law enforcement “the largest pay raises they’ve ever had” for two years in a row, and non-law enforcement employees at the county were eligible for 3% merit-based salary increases all four years of his term.
The discussion of Abbott’s plan comes as local governments across Tarrant County grapple with projected budget shortfalls, in part due to lower property tax revenue after the Tarrant Appraisal District board voted last year to continue using a two-year reappraisal schedule and capping tax increases at 5% per cycle. Fort Worth officials are considering raising the tax rate to help close a projected $94 million shortfall for 2027.
https://fortworthreport.org/2026/06/12/tads-reappraisal-freeze-under-discussion-after-tarrant-homes-overtaxed-no-change-in-sight/
In her statement, Simmons said O’Hare should answer for “his own involvement” in the county reappraisal plan, citing Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporting in 2024 that found the county judge personally wrote the agenda items that resulted in TAD’s current appraisal plan.
“Taxpayers deserve transparency,” Simmons wrote. “You cannot demand accountability from an appraisal system while avoiding accountability for your own efforts to influence that system.”
Abbott said he didn’t know the details about the reappraisal plan but promised that taxing entities will be surprised during their budget planning next year by the legislation he plans to sign if reelected.
“What it will lead to is more responsible budgeting,” Abbott said. “The state of Texas has to live within spending limits.”
Krause, a former state legislator of 10 years who joined the commissioners court in 2025, said he wanted to send a strong message that local government wants to work collaboratively with state government to provide tax relief.
“We're hand-in-hand. We're arm-in-arm trying to tackle this problem for the people of Texas,” Krause said. “It's not us versus them. It's us together trying to do what we can.”
O’Hare, Simmons, Ramirez and Abbott are on the November ballot. Early voting is Oct. 19-30, and Election Day is Nov. 3. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 5.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
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