The Tarrant County budget for the year that began Oct. 1 spends $834,076,906 across the county’s three operating funds, about $10.6 million more than last year, while the county tax rate slips to 18.60 cents per $100 of taxable value from 18.62 cents. The approved budget book shows departments asked for far more, and whether your county bill goes up or down depends on which “typical home” you look at.
What the Tarrant County budget includes
The operating budget breaks into three funds, according to a Sept. 15 letter to Commissioners Court from Budget and Risk Management Director Helen H. Giese:
- General Fund: $751,473,487.
- Road and Bridge Fund: $45,157,676.
- Debt Service Fund: $37,445,743.
Together, that is $10,588,221 more than the $823,488,685 appropriated for fiscal 2026. Departments had requested $985,880,040. Never Late News subtracted the approved total from the requests: about $151.8 million, or 15.4% of what was asked, did not make the final budget. Most of that gap is capital. Requests included $119,486,614 for capital items, and the approved capital line is zero.
By function, the Tarrant County budget book shows Public Safety rising $19,784,464, to $272,669,650, and Transportation rising $3,385,909. General Administration falls $9,839,265 and Community Services falls $3,537,406. Across the whole budget, salaries rise $28,834,805 while other operating costs drop $18,246,584.
A rate just under no-new-revenue
The adopted rate of $0.1860 splits into $0.1815 for maintenance and operations and $0.0045 for debt service, rounded. A year ago, the split was $0.173000 for operations and $0.013200 for debt.
Never Late News compared the two years in the budget book’s own rate table. The operating rate rose about 0.85 cent while the debt rate fell about 0.87 cent. In plain terms, the county shifted almost all of its debt rate into day-to-day operations and still lowered the total by two hundredths of a cent.
The rate also sits just below the county’s no-new-revenue rate of $0.1861, the rate that would raise the same money from the same properties as last year. The voter-approval rate, the most the court could adopt without an election, was $0.2453.
When the court proposed the rate, the vote was 3-2. County Judge Tim O’Hare and Commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez voted for it; Commissioners Roderick Miles Jr. and Alisa Simmons voted against. The final vote was set for Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. in the Commissioners Court room of the Tarrant County Administration Building.
Median home pays less; average home pays a little more
The county published two state-required comparisons, and they point in opposite directions.
- Median-valued homestead: the taxpayer impact statement puts current-year county taxes at $476.67 and estimated taxes under the budget at $440.75, a drop of $35.92. At the no-new-revenue rate, the figure would have been $440.98. The budget letter puts the median taxable value at $236,962.
- Average homestead: the notice of meeting to vote on the tax rate shows taxable value rising from $276,948 to $277,637, up 0.25%, and the county tax rising from $515.68 to $516.40, up 72 cents.
The county documents we reviewed do not explain why the two measures move differently. One clue comes from the arithmetic: at last year’s 18.62-cent rate, a bill of $476.67 corresponds to about $256,000 of taxable value, which suggests the median homestead’s taxable value is lower this year than last. The county does not state last year’s median, so treat that as an estimate.
Under the Tarrant County budget, the total levy on all property rises from $522,733,457 to $527,440,327, an increase of $4,706,870, or 0.90%. The budget letter says property taxes make up 63% of county revenue, that bills reflect a 20% homestead exemption along with the over-65 ceiling and the disabled veterans exemption, and that an estimated $11,604,893 will flow to tax increment financing districts.
Where the new money goes
The Tarrant County budget letter lists the pay and staffing changes:
- A 4% pay structure increase for peace officers and other law enforcement staff and 2.5% for most confinement staff, effective Oct. 1.
- A 3% step increase for law enforcement employees on their review dates, and up to a 3% capped merit raise for eligible employees outside law enforcement.
- 32 new General Fund positions and 38 eliminated through a reduction in force, plus 18 new Road and Bridge positions and three eliminated. The net change is nine positions.
- The county’s group health contribution rises to $14,472 per employee a year, and its retirement contribution rate is 12.1%.
Debt service drops $2,960,090 from fiscal 2026. Total outstanding debt, including interest, was $398,052,733 at the end of fiscal 2026. Reserves are $83 million in the General Fund and $1 million in the Debt Service Fund, which the letter says equals 15.07% of the county’s true operating budget.
State mandates also shaped the rate. The tax rate notice says the county spent $20,511,205 over 12 months on inmates sentenced to the state prison system, which raised the no-new-revenue operating rate by 0.1751 cent, and $31,906,044 on lawyers for people who cannot afford one.
What the Tarrant County budget means for your bill
County taxes are rate times taxable value, divided by 100. A homestead with $300,000 of taxable value after exemptions would owe $558.00 to the county this year, 60 cents less than at last year’s rate if the value had not changed. Your appraisal notice shows your own taxable value.
The county is one line of several on a Tarrant bill. City and school rates are larger, as our coverage of the Fort Worth city budget, Arlington’s FY27 budget and Fort Worth ISD’s tax rate shows.
How Never Late News reported this
All figures come from the fiscal 2027 budget documents Tarrant County posted, checked against the originals.
- Tarrant County fiscal 2027 budget page, which lists the approved budget documents and notices.
- Approved Budget, Hierarchy: the Sept. 15 budget letter, fund totals, function summary, requested and approved columns and the rate history table.
- Taxpayer Impact Statement: median homestead figures.
- Notice of Meeting to Vote on Tax Rate: rates, the 3-2 vote, average homestead table, levy and state mandate costs.
The requested versus approved gap, the rate shift between operations and debt, the implied prior median value and the $300,000 example are Never Late News calculations from those records. No interviews were conducted for this report. To report an error, email editor@neverlatenews.com.