City of Fort Worth FY2026 budget and tax rate approved

City of Fort Worth FY2026 budget and tax rate approved

Published on September 17, 2025

On Sept. 16, Fort Worth City Council approved the Fiscal Year 2026 budget. This year's budget has been shaped by population growth, with the City's population now exceeding 1 million people, and by the evolving property tax landscape in Texas.

The approved operating budget is $3.09 billion, an increase of 10.77%, or just over $300 million, from the FY2025 adopted budget.

View a video recap of the budget:

The budget increase sustains service levels for Police, Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and adds resources for the Housing Priority Repair Program, Mobile Tool Shed Program and animal shelters. Additional PayGo funds have been added for street and park maintenance. The approved budget aligns with the City Council's Strategic Priorities: Economic Development, Community Investment, Community Safety, Infrastructure and Responsible Growth.

Property tax rate

After a public hearing at the Sept. 16 special-called City Council meeting, the approved tax rate for FY2026 is $0.6700, a reduction of 1/4 cent from the current tax rate of $0.6725. Out of the $0.6700, $0.5225 is allocated to operations and maintenance and $0.1475 is allocated to debt.

General Fund budget

The approved General Fund budget is $1.11 billion, an increase of 4.56% from the previous year.

Significant organizational changes include establishing a new Emergency Management & Communications Department, moving Homeless Strategies and Planning into the City Manager's Office, shifting responsibility for homeless camp enforcement from Code Compliance to Environmental Services and redistributing funding and staff from the former Diversity & Inclusion Department.

The increase in the public safety budget is for contractual pay increases as well as additional Neighborhood Police Officers (NPOs) and School Resource Officers (SROs). Eight NPOs and two SROs will be added this year. NPOs were added following a Beat Study, which looked at the geographic boundaries of patrol beats. The result of the study included adding an additional 12 beats, benefiting many areas of the City, as the realignment is designed to yield more efficient and effective police response.

SROs were added in partnership with Fort Worth ISD as they look to address their response to Texas HB 3, which added security requirements for school districts. The two SROs will be added to the current 87 officers.

The new fiscal year starts Oct. 1, 2025.

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