Fort Worth, Dallas leaders discuss tighter budgets next year, impact on property taxes, employees
On Tuesday, the Dallas and Fort Worth city managers discussed their proposed budgets for the new year, starting Oct. 1, and each city had a different plan when it comes to property tax rates.
Fort Worth must overcome $94 million shortfall
In Fort Worth, the property tax rate could rise, while in Dallas, it could continue a city trend and drop.
In Fort Worth, City Manager Jay Chapa said before he could propose a balanced budget, he had to overcome a $94 million shortfall.
He proposed a nearly $1.16 billion general fund budget for next year, up by nearly $51 million from this year's spending plan.
The city is eliminating 51 positions and freezing 91 positions for half the year and 29 positions for the full year. Chapa proposed raising the property tax rate by 3.2 cents to 70.2 cents per $100 dollars valuation.
If approved by the council, it would be higher than the property tax rate proposed in Dallas. Chapa told reporters that because the average appraised value of a home dropped in the city, the average tax bill will still drop by about $21 dollars.
Even though Fort Worth is the fastest-growing large city in the U.S., Chapa said residential property valuations haven't gone up as they expected.
"It's really tied to the Tarrant Appraisal District not doing annual appraisals," he said. "So, they went two years without doing appraisals, while they went ahead and accepted protests, and that resulted in a loss of values that basically left our overall valuations even while costs have all been going up by three, four, five percent."
Dallas budget increased over $80 million
In Dallas, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has proposed a general fund next year that's just over $2 billion, up more than $80 million from this year's spending plan. Most of that increase is for both the Dallas Police Department and Fire Rescue. Tolbert's proposal calls for eliminating 296 positions in all.
Of those, 108 employees will be laid off. The rest of the positions are vacant. The city has proposed lowering the property tax rate by ten cents to 69.78 cents per $100 valuation. Funding for arts and libraries are among those potentially on the chopping block.
"You will see fewer services because of the hour reductions, and really, it's that when hours are reduced, access is reduced, opportunity is reduced, so it just snowballs," said Denise McGovern, the Executive Director of Friends of the Dallas Library.
In an interview, Chris Heinbaugh, an arts advocate, said, "I was encouraged the arts cuts were very focused and strategic, so that it would keep more funding continue to come to the arts, but it still took a hit. So, it's always sad to see it back up like that. It's a tough year, and everyone is trying to adjust to that."
Both cities will be hosting budget townhalls for residents in various neighborhoods. City council members in Fort Worth and Dallas will propose budget amendments, and must approve their final budgets next month, before the new budget year begins on Oct. 1.
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