Within 10 days of hearing City Manager David Cooke’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Fort Worth City Council members called for a tax rate reduction and other budget changes to ease the financial burden on citizens.

In a joint letter to Cooke dated Aug. 23, Mayor Mattie Parker and the rest of the City Council requested that the city’s tax rate remain below the tax rate without new revenue and remain unchanged at 67.25 cents per $100 of assessment. Cooke’s proposal of 67.73 cents per $100 of assessment would have raised the city’s tax rate for the first time since 1995.

“Our residents continue to express growing concerns about their property tax burden and overall housing affordability,” the council’s letter to Cooke states. “Given the economic uncertainty surrounding inflation and the cost of living, we believe we must continue our efforts to reduce property taxes that have been ongoing for over a decade while providing better services to our community.”

The upcoming budget is the last one Cooke will oversee before he retires in February after a decade as city manager, the longest tenure in Fort Worth history.

Cooke said the property tax increase, which would fund a $1.062 billion general fund budget, is needed to cover an unexpected decline in property value growth and increased costs for police and fire services, performance-based pay raises, increases in the pay-as-you-go fund and MedStar’s transition to a fire-based EMS system.

The differing views between Cooke and the City Council come at a time when council members will be up for re-election in 2025. Parker, who supported Cooke’s efforts to pass a higher effective tax rate last year, has not yet announced whether she intends to run for a third term as mayor.

Council member Michael Crain told the report he believes maintaining a flat tax rate is “the right thing to do” and he was proud his fellow council members were able to agree on it. He noted that he has long sought to lower the tax rate throughout his tenure on the council.

“I think I’ve been clear over the last few years — I didn’t vote for the tax rates because I wasn’t convinced that the city government had cleaned up the budget as best as it could,” Crain said. “In the uncertain times we’re in right now, it wasn’t the right time (to raise taxes).”

Crain, Alan Blaylock and Charlie Lauersdorf were the only council members to vote against the adopted tax rate last year. The city reduced the rate by four cents, but it still resulted in higher tax bills for residents.

Last year, the mayor defended raising the tax rate above the rate that does not raise new revenue, saying the move paved the way for the city to succeed in the future. This year, she said, she is proud of the council for working together to push for a tax rate below the rate that does not raise new revenue.

“As concerns grow about property tax burdens and housing affordability, we must continue to advocate for property tax reductions while maintaining world-class city services,” Parker wrote on social media on August 23.

Crain added that he and the rest of the council see the financial burden on residents caused by inflation and economic uncertainty and want to help alleviate it. That’s why they’re also asking that Cooke revise the budget proposal to raise the city’s minimum wage from $15.45 to $18 an hour.

The letter said the council carefully considered the “need to care for our workforce and remain a competitive and preferred employer” before agreeing to a call for a minimum wage increase. Council members Elizabeth Beck, Chris Nettles and Jared Williams had previously said they supported activists who protested outside City Hall in June demanding a $20 minimum wage. The city administration had proposed a minimum wage of $16.07.

“There was obviously a push to get to $20, but I think … $18 was the compromise that was made so we were all on board,” Crain said.

In addition to the tax rate and minimum wage proposals, council members wrote in the letter that public safety “must continue to be a high priority.” They said they support the various public safety priorities in Cooke’s current budget proposal.

The council also requested that the budget provide “vital funding for road maintenance that is necessary to maintain the infrastructure of our growing city.” It supported the budget proposal to provide $9 million for road maintenance through an increase in levy funds. Levy funds allow the city to finance projects with cash instead of taking on debt.

Earlier this year, city staff proposed imposing a new fee on property owners to fund street maintenance that would have increased city government bills for citizen services by an average of $110 per year. The fee would have helped close a projected $66 million annual gap between the funds needed to improve Fort Worth’s streets and those available.

In May, staff shelved the proposal and said they would explore other funding options. Crain’s said imposing that fee on residents would not have been the right decision.

“The City Council, by and large, knows what is right and what is best for Fort Worth, and we will continue to take care of our citizens and provide them with the safe, clean city they expect,” Crain said.

The City Council is scheduled to meet for budget work sessions on August 27 and September 5 and 6. A public hearing will be held on September 17 to gather citizens’ input on the proposed tax rate. The final budget and tax rate will then be voted on the same day.

Cecilia Lenzen is a government affairs reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach her at [email protected] or @bycecilialenzen.

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This article first appeared in the Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.