Ft Worth Times

Despite lawmakers' continued promises of "historic property tax reform" rooted in three-year-old legislation, local governments – including Fort Worth – have set budgets and rates that all but guarantee property tax increases, according to a statewide fiscal watchdog's analysis.

The Texas Legislature's passage of so-called reforms in 2019 will not keep property taxes from rising if local governments don't lower property tax rates to the no-new-revenue rate, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility CEO and President Tim Hardin said.

"This year is special for Texas taxpayers because it is a year where most Texans will likely see their property tax bills skyrocket (yet again), despite state lawmakers' promises that the 'historic property tax reform' legislation passed in 2019 should provide relief any day now," Hardin said in an Aug. 23 news release.

He referred to a Texas Senate Finance Committee meeting late last spring, during which taxpayers in the state were "told to wait for relief" in the form the no-new-revenue rate. The state's comptroller said the no-new-revenue tax rate "enables the public to evaluate the relationship between taxes for the prior year and for the current year, based on a tax rate that would produce the same amount of taxes if applied to the same properties taxed in both years."

That doesn't seem to be happening in at least four of Texas' major cities.

A Texans for Fiscal Responsibility review of proposed budgets and rates in Texas' four most populous cities found proposals for rates higher than the no-new-revenue tax rate.

In Fort Worth, no-new-revenue rate was calculated at .66 but the city is proposing .71, which is 7.5% higher.

Fort Worth is not the only major city in Texas proposing rates higher than the the no-new-revenue rate. In Austin, the no-new-revenue rate was calculated at .45, instead of lowering property taxes to that rate, Austin proposes a rate of .462, 3.5% higher than the NNRR, according to Texans for Fiscal Responsibility's review.

In Dallas, the no-new-revenue rate was calculated at .64 but the city is proposing .74, 3.5% higher. In San Antonio, the no-new-revenue rate was calculated at .48 but the city is proposing .54, 12.5% higher.

"As things begin to heat up and local governments continue to set their new rates and budgets, it is becoming more and more obvious that Texans for Fiscal Responisbility’s prediction that most of these jurisdictions would NOT adopt the no-new-revenue rate is coming true," Hardin said. "What does this mean for taxpayers? It means the 'historic property tax relief' our lawmakers keep celebrating has yet to lower anyone's bills, nor will it in the coming year unless there is a major shift in local government fiscal responsibility in the next few months. It is safe to say that without local governments adopting the no-new-revenue rate, your property tax bill WILL GO UP."

Meanwhile, the state's comptroller has also reported that inflation is going up. The inflation rate in Texas was up to 8.6% in June 2022, with current dollars calculated at $3.68 billion, and inflation adjusted dollars was reported at $3.24 billion for that month. The difference between current dollars and inflation-adjusted dollars represents the share of sales tax revenue attributable to recent price inflation.