Ft. Worth, Texas, August 7, 2017
The Tarrant County Commissioners Court was presented with a balanced budget proposal this morning, which includes a 1 cent decrease from the current tax rate. The total proposed operating budget is $602,646,589 with a tax rate of 24.4 cents per $100 valuation. Tarrant County taxes on a home with a value of $100,000 would be $244. While the tax rate has either decreased or stayed the same since 2006, this is the second consecutive 1 cent decrease.
During today’s hearing, the Commissioners Court was asked to consider a 3 percent merit-based increase to non-law enforcement employees. Law enforcement structure adjustments were also increased by 3 percent. The budget also includes adding 19 positions to the budget, mainly to address increased workload and to pay for unfunded mandates. Some new positions will be offset by reductions-in-force.
Compared with the other five large urban counties (Travis, El Paso, Harris, Bexar and Dallas) Tarrant’s tax rate is the second lowest.
The Commissioners Court is scheduled to adopt the budget and set the tax rate on September 12th.
