As part of the Tarrant County fiscal year 2026-27 budget, county employees and police officers are set to get a raise.
The Tarrant County Commissioners Court approved the nearly $843.08 million FY 2026-27 budget and the tax rate of $0.186 per $100 valuation by a 3-2 vote with County Judge Tim O’Hare and commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez voting to approve during the Sept. 15 meeting. Commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles Jr. voted against.
The details
The budget is broken into three funds: the general fund, the road and bridge fund and the debt service fund, according to county documents. Both revenues and expenditures in the FY 2026-27 budget are $843.08 million, representing a balanced budget. Expenditures and revenues both increased by $10.59 million.
The general fund, which is used to cover most of the county’s operating expenses, has revenues totaling $751.47 million. Expenditures are the same amount.
Within the general fund, non-law enforcement county employees will receive up to a 3% merit increase, per county documents. There is also a 4% increase for county police officers and other law enforcement personnel, a 2.5% structure increase for county jail personnel and a 3% raise for members of the commissioners court.
Other expenditures within the county budget include $45.16 million for the road and bridge fund and $37.45 million for the debt service fund. The road and bridge fund is used to maintain public roads and bridges across Tarrant County.
Diving deeper
For the fourth consecutive year, county commissioners approved reducing the property tax rate.
The adopted rate for FY 2026-27 is $0.186 per $100 valuation, a decrease from $0.1862 per $100 valuation for FY 2025-26. The maintenance and operations component of the new tax rate is $0.1815 per $100 valuation and the interest and sinking component of the rate is $0.0045 per $100 valuation.
Taxpayers are projected to save around $1 annually on property taxes under the approved rate. The average home value in Tarrant County is $277,637, which would result in an average annual tax bill to the county of $516.40 for FY 2026-27, compared to $515.68 for the average home value of $276,948 in FY 2025-26.
What they’re saying
Krause said he appreciated the work of county staff and departments working together to balance the FY 2026-27 budget.
“I know it wasn’t easy to get to where we balance this budget [and] come under the no-new-revenue rate,” Krause said. “This is a team effort, and it took a lot of not just staff, but also other agencies and departments in the county to make this happen today for the benefit of Tarrant County taxpayers.
Simmons said she would have liked to see the impacts of continued cuts to the tax rate, along with seeing different options for future budgets.
“This proposed tax rate is going to look good on paper because y’all jumped through a whole bunch of hoops, but it is not sustainable,” Simmons said. “I wish we could get to a point where we are forecasting, where you are presenting this court a look at maintaining the current rate, looking at the no-new-revenue rate, looking at below the no-new-revenue rate [and] looking at maybe increasing it.”
What else
The county’s new fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2027.
