City Council - Regular Meeting

I'll call the meeting to order. This is a special meeting on the FY27 proposed city budget. And first up, I call Christiane Simmons to give a presentation on that proposed budget. Christiane.

Good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tem and Council. All right, so I'll give a quick briefing on the fiscal year 27 budget. Just as a reminder, this is a very abbreviated version of what we're presenting, still currently presenting out in the council district. So we've done eight of 10 public engagement meetings, have two left this week. This public hearing provides just another touch point for residents to make public comments on the fiscal year 27 budget as proposed. The themes of this year's budget have really been centered around the Tarrant Appraisal District's reappraisal plan and the effect that that's having on our revenues. And we've had to balance the budget with reductions across the general fund, as well as some revenue and fee increases. We've maintained the debt service rate and the PAYGO tax rate for cash investment and infrastructure. The total operating budget for fiscal year 27 is recommended at $3.3 billion across all of the operating funds. The general fund seeing about 4.6% growth followed by enterprise funds and special revenue funds as the other two big operating categories. The recommended tax rate as proposed by the city manager on August 11th was 70.2 cents, which is 3.2% increase from the current tax rate of 67 cents per $100 valuation. Since the time we recommended the budget on August 11th, council has asked via most, it seems like a majority, to restore some items to the budget that were originally recommended to be frozen or eliminated. You see some of the detail here. And so a couple of weeks ago, we delivered to you as council the impact to the tax rate of restoring those services and positions. So the tax rate for that would be 70.565 cents. Both the 70.2 and 70.565 tax rates still result in a savings on the average taxpayer or resident's home value or their tax bill for the following year. And that's because home values are falling. At the same time we do the operating budget, we also update the five-year capital plan. And so you see here that the fiscal year 27 capital plan is $1.03 billion, the large majority of that being water, with a total capital plan over the five years of about $3.8 billion. So that brings us to a total recommended budget for fiscal year 27 of $4.35 billion, slightly down from the current year's budget on the capital side. I mentioned that we're in the middle of community engagement now, so we've done eight of 10 meetings. We have districts three and 10 remaining this week. This is the statutorily required budget public hearing, but I think we do a nice job in Fort Worth of getting out to our districts and having a lot of interaction with residents. All those meetings are live streamed and can be viewed backwards as well, so residents have a lot of opportunity to learn more details of the budget. Again, this is just a briefing of what we've been presenting. City Council is scheduled now to adopt the budget on September 15th alongside the tax rate. And with that, I'll take any questions.

All right, questions from Council? Seeing none, we have one speaker that's signed up to speak. Adrian Smith.

Adrian Smith, District 9. I am one with the people. First, I want to say thank you to the staff for what efforts you all put in to ensure that our city is moving forward. However, a $97 million operating deficit for the 2027 fiscal year that will have a direct impact on the livelihoods of the residents who make our city home. Now, no one has taken accountability, but you did ensure to implement the typical town homestead meetings to convince the public that somehow you have their best interest at heart. Let's be clear. Regardless of the current property tax valuation being at a lower revenue rate, it again isn't the only causation for our current plight. Until we are ready to have an honest discussion regarding the reckless spending, which starts which is a majority of our plight, our city will continue to suffer. Now, we've already made previous cuts to things, We cut and then we like, you all want to add two. I don't, just trying to figure this out. So we don't want meetings. We don't want meetings with empty promises. So you've done eight. We got two more to conduct, but those meetings are never full when you think about it. And me, myself, I don't attend them. It's unnecessary. I come here enough, but for better government efficiency. Again, I'll go back to some of my previous points. You need a new city manager. new ideas, new perspectives, and someone who's neutral to what's been the Fort Worth way. We need a new mayor because everything begins and ends with the mayor, regardless good or bad. As far as the council representatives, we need those who are putting the people first. And you know in your heart if you are putting your constituents first.

I can't speak to that.

You know. We need to return standalone voting to agenda items. We need to restore remote speaking, place the public comment to the top of the agenda. And my question is, I have a question. What is it costing us as taxpayers regarding this upcoming demolition of the Fort Worth Convention Center? What would that cost us? So hopefully we can get this right, because it seems like we're going backwards. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Smith. We have no other speakers. Council, looking for a motion. Michael, I think you had something ready.

Okay.

Try that.

Hello. There we go. Thanks. Adrian, thanks for your comments. I would say to anybody as part of this process, we've got two more of these budget meetings. Tomorrow night, I have one in District 3 at R.D. Evans at 6.30, I believe. Is that right? Make sure. At 6. I've attended the one in District 6, and I'll say that the staff does a good job, city manager and staff, of laying out what this budget looks like, priorities. Staff sitting right behind you can answer any of your questions because they keep answering all of ours. And there's another one in District 10. I know everybody's had theirs, but I encourage anybody to go and get their questions answered directly. I don't think it's a waste of time, especially given the complexity of our budget. So with that, I do have a motion. It says I move to close the public hearing and to continue consideration of the budget to the September 15th meeting.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Please go ahead and vote. One other screens up. Here we go. Okay.

That can you got it?

Okay, great. Thank you. That motion passes. That concludes the public hearing on the budget. City Council is expected to vote on the budget at our September 15th City Council meeting, which will begin at 6 p.m. here in the Council Chamber. At that same meeting, we will hold a public hearing on the property tax rate and vote on that as well. Council, that concludes our business, and we are adjourned.