What’s in Tarrant County’s proposed 2024 budget? Pay raises and property tax cuts

Tarrant County is set to pass a $896.6 million budget Tuesday that will provide property owners with tax relief while adding money to law enforcement and cutting cash from the county’s community services.

If passed, the county’s budget will be $8.1 million less than last year’s.

Officials say the budget and tax cuts won’t result in a loss of services.

Budget at a glance

The most significant budget increases in 2024 will be a $9.8 million increase for law enforcement, a $6.9 million increase for transportation and $5 million more for the judicial budget.

The most significant cuts are a $19.2 million deduction from general administration and $11.7 million deduction to the county’s community services, according to budget documents.

Around $10.8 million will be eliminated from the county’s community outreach, which will not be funded in 2024, according to budget documents. Another $8 million will be deducted from county donations. The county will also have $20 million less in cash to carry over.

True property tax cuts

For the first time in years, property tax cuts in Tarrant County will result in a lower property tax bill despite skyrocketing home appraisal values.

The county has a proposed a rate of 19.45 cents per every $100 of a home’s appraised value. A resident with a home appraised at $350,000 will pay $612.68 in property taxes with the newly passed 10% homestead exemption.

Commissioners passed the same tax rate for the JPS Hospital District in August despite the hospital board’s wishes to keep the tax rate the same as last year’s.

The move comes after County Judge Tim O’Hare ran his platform on cutting the county’s property tax rate by 20%.

County officials have attributed the cuts to timing and say they were made possible through retirements, the elimination of employee retention payments and cuts in construction and software development. Each department was also asked to hold its budget.

Voters will decide on more property tax cuts in the Nov. 7 election.

A tax relief package from Texas lawmakers will ask voters to increase the homestead exemption for school taxes to $100,000, reduce the school tax rate by 10.7 cents and place a 20% cap on appraisal increases for non-homestead residential and commercial properties valued at or below $5 million.

Pay raises

Pay increases for employees and elected officials account for $12.6 million increase in the 2024 budget over last year.

Pay for O’Hare and Sheriff Bill Waybourn will increase from $211,895.32 to $217,952.28. District Attorney Phil Sorrells will see an increase from $250,333.34 to $253,643.40.

The four commissioners will see their pay increase from $201,895.20 to $207,952.16.

All county employees will be eligible for merit increases of up to 6%.