Tarrant County commissioners lower JPS hospital’s tax rate as part of county tax cut
Tarrant County commissioners presented a united force Tuesday and voted to lower the tax rate for the Tarrant County Hospital District for the first time in years.
The five commissioners voted unanimously to lower the tax rate to 19.45 cents per $100 of assessed value. That rate would amount to a tax bill of $612.68 for a county resident who owns a $350,000 home with a homestead exemption.
The court rejected the proposed tax rate that had been approved by the hospital district’s board of managers last week. The hospital board, whose members are appointed by county commissioners, voted 7-3 to approve a $1.5 billion budget and a tax rate of 22.4429 cents per $100 of assessed value. That rate would have cost the owner of a $350,000 home $706.95.
“I don’t know whether the board did not understand that it was the county’s policy that we were going to go below the no new revenue rate, or if for some reason they just disagreed with the county’s policy,” said commissioner Roy Brooks before Tuesday’s vote.
The no-new-revenue tax rate produces the same revenue as the previous year. For the Tarrant County Hospital District, that rate was calculated to be 20.3207 cents per $100 of property value. This rate accounts for increasing property values and would bring the same amount in tax revenue for the hospital district as the 2023 taxes.
County commissioners elected to go below this rate, for both the hospital district and the county as a whole. Last week, outgoing county administrator G.K. Maenius proposed an $896.6 million budget for the county, a total that is about $8.1 million less than last year’s budget.
The president and CEO of JPS, Dr. Karen Duncan, said after the vote that the lower tax rate would not affect the health network’s services or the timeline of its bond projects.
Duncan said she was not sure of the next steps for JPS’s 2024 budget, given that the $1.5 billion budget that was approved by the hospital board relied on a higher tax rate to produce about 38% of the health network’s revenue. JPS has not published its proposed 2024 budget online; the Star-Telegram has requested a copy through a public records request.
The commissioners’ vote followed a passionate debate by the hospital board at its board meeting Thursday. The hospital district is considered a component unit of Tarrant County government, meaning that the county commissioners have the final say on its tax rate and that they can provide advice to JPS.
The hospital board voted 7-3 to keep its tax rate the same, and veteran members of the board argued that decreasing JPS tax revenue could hurt the health network over the next decade, as it embarks on a $1.5 billion bond project that involves a complete redesign of the main hospital campus, at least four new clinics and a new psychiatric emergency center.
The bond projects were initially estimated to cost about $1.2 billion in 2018, when voters approved $800 million in debt to finance the project. But the total estimated cost has increased: Last year, JPS leaders said that inflation had driven the total budget to $1.5 billion, and on Thursday the hospital’s chief financial officer said the total cost could be higher still. One of hte major projects of the bond, a new hospital tower on the main JPS campus, hasn’t been priced out yet, said Sharon Clark, the chief financial officer of JPS.
“I think there is a risk that it might go over the $1.5 billion,” Clark said. “We are going to try and keep it in budget.”
Hospital board members initially indicated they would make a plea to the county commissioners to keep the flat tax rate. Longtime board member Trent Petty said that dropping the tax rate for the 2024 budget could force the hospital to have to raise taxes if the bond projects get more expensive and as demand for services increases.
“In my opinion we have an obligation to continue doing what the voters of Tarrant County asked us to do, which is: Don’t tell people they have to wait until December to come up and get treatment,” Petty said last week, referencing a county resident’s concerns over months-long waiting period to get treatment.
Board member Zim Zimmerman encouraged Petty to make the same argument to the county commissioners. But on Tuesday, only one board member, Blake Woodard, addressed the court. Woodard, who was appointed by County Judge Tim O’Hare, said he supported a lower tax rate for the health network.
JPS’ bond projects were described as urgent needs when voters approved the bond package in 2018. In particular, the bond projects were designed to address the county’s need for emergency care for patients experiencing a psychiatric or behavioral health crisis. The path toward a new psychiatric emergency center began last year, when JPS broke ground on a connector building that will link an existing part of the hospital’s psychiatric unit with the future psychiatric emergency center.
This story was originally published August 15, 2023 at 12:15 PM.
