FORT WORTH, Texas — Fort Worth City Council approved a $3.33 billion Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget and a tax year 2026 property tax rate of $0.70565 per $100 of valuation, the city said in an official Sept. 15, 2026, release.
The budget is up 10.81%, or just over $241 million, from the FY2026 adopted budget. The new tax rate is 3.565 cents higher than the prior $0.6700 rate. Even so, the city says the average residential property’s taxable value fell by $13,616, so the average residential tax bill is projected to drop by $8.19 compared with the prior year.
Why the rate rose while the average bill fell
City Hall attributes the awkward arithmetic to a softer local appraisal picture. Growth is not translating cleanly into higher taxable values, the release says, largely because a Tarrant Appraisal District reappraisal plan has not reappraised residential property since 2024. Protest volume is rising, and state-level changes keep budget forecasts uncertain.
Council restored several items that had been slated for reduction, including a PetSmart satellite adoption center in Alliance, a limited number of employee positions to protect service levels, and mid-year Pay for Performance increases in the 4% to 4.5% range planned for April 2027. The city put the cost of those restorations at $4.09 million.
The entire 3.565-cent rate increase is directed to General Fund operations, according to the city. The PayGo component of the tax rate is unchanged, preserving cash investment in infrastructure. The debt-service rate also remains static, which City Hall says supports future bond capacity after voters approved the 2026 bond program earlier this year.
Fees climb alongside the levy
Council also approved higher resident charges for stormwater, water and wastewater, solid waste, and the environmental fee. Based on typical usage, a typical Fort Worth resident will pay about $7 more per month in city usage fees in the coming year, the release says.
That fee stack sits next to the property-tax line on household budgets, which matters in a metro where school districts, the county college district, and cities all adopt rates in the same late-summer window. Readers comparing school and city bills should separate the Fort Worth municipal rate from overlapping ISD rates in Keller, Northwest, Arlington, or Fort Worth ISD.
Related Never Late News coverage in the North Texas education and civic finance cluster includes [[NLN: fort-worth-2026-bond-streets]], [[NLN: keller-isd-bond-2026]], and [[NLN: denton-isd-tax-rate]].
Why this matters
Fort Worth has crossed 1 million residents, and the FY2027 budget is the first full operating plan written against that scale while residential appraisals are effectively frozen. A higher posted rate with a lower average bill is easy to misread in a headline feed. The city’s own numbers say operations needed the extra 3.565 cents, debt service stayed flat for bond capacity, and fee increases add about $7 a month for a typical user. Homesteaders should check their own taxable value against the $0.70565 rate rather than assuming every bill falls by $8.19.
How Never Late News reported this
Never Late News based this report on the City of Fort Worth’s official Sept. 15, 2026, news release announcing Council approval of the FY2027 budget and tax rate, including the $3.33 billion total, 10.81% increase, $0.70565 rate, 3.565-cent hike, $13,616 average taxable-value decline, $8.19 average bill decrease, restoration costs, static debt-service and PayGo components, and typical monthly fee impact. Primary source: Council approves FY2027 budget and tax rate. We did not invent council-floor quotations beyond the city’s published summary or independently audit the appraisal roll for this draft.
Corrections and reader feedback
If you spot an error in budget totals, tax rates, average-bill figures, fee estimates, or dates, email editor@neverlatenews.com with the correction and a source link. Never Late News corrects factual mistakes promptly and notes substantive updates when the city posts amended budget documents.
About Never Late News: Never Late News is a US local and civic news site covering budgets, taxes, schools, housing, and public services with people-first reporting. This article carries the byline Jessica J. Eaton.
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