Tarrant County’s proposed fiscal year 2026-27 budget is projected to increase by nearly $10.6 million from last fiscal year. Commissioners discussed the FY 2026-27 budget, which totals close to $834.1 million, during an Aug. 13 meeting.
The details
The overall proposed county budget is balanced, meaning revenues and expenditures are the same.
Within the budget, non-law enforcement county employees are set to receive a 3% raise. Law enforcement officers will get a 4% raise while detention officers are set to receive a 2.5% raise, said Matthew Jones, deputy director of budget and risk management for Tarrant County.
The cost of raises is projected at around $13.98 million, Jones said. Overall, Tarrant County is slated to pay $494.33 million in salaries for FY 2026-27, a nearly $30 million increase from the $465.33 million appropriated for fiscal year 2025-26, per county documents.
Breaking it down
The proposed tax rate for FY 2026-27 is $0.186 per $100 valuation, which is a decrease from $0.1862 per $100 valuation in FY 2025-26. The proposed tax rate also falls below the no-new-revenue rate, per county documents.
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.
Within the proposed tax rate for FY 2026-27, the maintenance and operations component, which covers salaries and other general expenditures, is $0.1816 per $100 valuation, and the interest and sinking component, which is used to repay debt, is $0.0044 per $100 valuation. Chandler Merrritt, the county’s administrator, said the interest and sinking rate has steadily declined over several years.
“This is something that Tarrant County has really worked over the past 10 years to decrease that ratio of M&O to debt service, making more M&O funds available” Merritt said. “Back in 2017, the ratio was about 90 to 10, and with this proposed budget, it takes it down to 98 to 2.”
What’s next
Commissioners are set to adopt the tax rate and budget at a Sept. 15 meeting. FY 2026-27 begins Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2027.
