Fort Worth City Council Adopts $3.33 Billion FY 2027 Budget for 1 Million Residents as Transit and Floodway Projects Advance

City Council Adopts $3.33 Billion Operating Plan to Support Rapid Population Growth

FORT WORTH, Texas — Managing the dynamic demands of a municipal population that recently crossed the historic milestone of one million residents, the Fort Worth City Council formally enacted a $3.33 billion municipal operating and capital budget for Fiscal Year 2027 in late September 2026. Taking effect on October 1, the adopted fiscal framework delivers a $241 million net expansion over FY 2026 to reinforce essential emergency services, expand arterial road capacity, and maintain vital public assets.

The council established the municipal property tax rate at $0.705650 per $100 of taxable valuation. Although representing a nominal 3.565-cent rate adjustment to counteract localized appraisal adjustments and absorb municipal cost inflation, city budget analysts confirmed that the average residential property owner will see a modest decrease in their municipal tax bill.

$4.09 Million Invested to Restore Core Public Services and Frontline Staffing

Navigating an initial $94 million projected shortfall through departmental efficiencies, the final budget allocated $4.09 million in targeted service restorations. Key restorations include funding to reopen the Alliance-area PetSmart satellite animal adoption center, expanding park maintenance crews, and providing a 4% to 4.5% merit-based Pay-for-Performance salary adjustment for civilian and frontline municipal employees scheduled for early 2027.

Mayor Mattie Parker and City Manager David Cooke underscored that strategic fiscal discipline ensures Fort Worth preserves its high quality of life while maintaining competitive compensation to retain top municipal talent.

Trinity Metro Multimodal Connectivity and Panther Island Bypass Channel

On the infrastructure front, the city deepened coordination with Trinity Metro to expand express bus connectors between the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) CentrePort Station and regional employment centers. Concurrently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Tarrant Regional Water District reached pivotal engineering benchmarks on the 1.5-mile Panther Island floodway bypass channel, unlocking generational waterfront residential and commercial development just north of downtown Fort Worth.