How Fort Worth funds City services

How Fort Worth funds City services

Published on September 03, 2025

Every time you put out your trash, turn on the tap or drive on a city street, you see your tax dollars at work. Here's how Fort Worth's budget makes it happen.

The City budget isn't just one big pot of money. Instead, it's divided into funds, each with a specific purpose and rules on how the money can be used.

The General Fund is the largest fund in the City budget. It covers many City services such as Police, Fire, parks, libraries and street maintenance. The General Fund is primarily supported by property taxes, sales taxes and other general revenues that residents and businesses contribute. This broad funding base helps ensure that daily City operations remain strong as Fort Worth continues to grow.

Debt Service Fund: This fund is how the City pays back the money it borrows for large capital projects. The City uses a portion of property taxes to pay principal and interest on bonds that finance streets, buildings and other major infrastructure.

The City has several Special Revenue Funds dedicated to specific purposes:

• Crime Control & Prevention District (CCPD): A half-cent sales tax supports public safety initiatives including additional school resource officers and neighborhood police officers in FY26.
• Culture and Tourism: Funded by an 11% hotel tax, this helps operate and maintain the Fort Worth Convention Center, Will Rogers Memorial Center and other tourism programs that welcome more than 3 million visitors each year.
• Emergency Medical Services: Supported by ambulance service charges, FY26 is the first full year that Medstar is part of the City system.
• Environmental Protection: This fund allows the City to tackle air/water quality monitoring and cleanup of illegal dumping and litter, with expanded street sweeping this year.
• Municipal Golf: User fees fund operations at Pecan Valley, Meadowbrook and Rockwood Park golf courses.
• Community Tree Planting: Grows and plants trees on public property including parks, golf courses, medians and City facilities.

Enterprise Funds work more like a business - you pay for what you use - and this money can only be used to provide the specific service. Fees from your water bill cannot be used to pay for Police, parks, libraries, etc.

• Water and Wastewater: Your monthly water bill is based on your household usage. Fort Worth provides water and wastewater services to about 1.3 million people in Fort Worth and 33 surrounding communities. This includes capital projects like water treatment plants, replacing cast-iron pipes and expanding transmission mains.
• Stormwater: Manages flooding, maintains drainage systems, reduces erosion and reviews developments for compliance with stormwater standards.
• Solid Waste: Funded by fees on your water bill, this covers garbage, recycling and bulk/brush collection.
• Municipal Airports: Supports Alliance, Meacham and Spinks airports with revenue from leases, landing fees, hangar rentals and fuel.
• Municipal Parking: Parking fees and fines help support five garages, 20 surface lots and more than 3,200 metered parking spaces.

Internal Service Funds provide behind-the-scenes support to City departments. These funds don't serve residents directly but keep City operations running smoothly. They cover IT services, City vehicle fleet, employee health insurance, risk management and engineering support for infrastructure projects. Running these funds like internal businesses encourages efficiency and transparency within the organization.

The City also manages fiduciary funds, like the Retiree Healthcare Trust, which pays for benefits for retired employees.

Every dollar in the City's budget has a purpose, and each fund ensures your money is spent responsibly.

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