Tarrant County commissioners will lower JPS tax for the third year in a row
The Tarrant County public hospital’s tax rate was lowered for the third consecutive year by county commissioners Wednesday.
Commissioners voted Wednesday to set the tax rate ceiling at 16.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, down from 18.25 cents. Wednesday’s vote was only to set the ceiling on the tax rate; county commissioners will take a final vote on the tax rate Sept. 16. The vote passed 3-2, along party lines, with the court’s two Democratic commissioners voting against the ceiling.
JPS is the county’s public hospital and cares for the majority of the county’s uninsured patients. The hospital is in the midst of a massive period of construction that, all told, is expected to cost $2.5 billion. The construction will be paid for largely through cash that the hospital has been saving for years, in addition to $800 million in bond proceeds that voters approved in 2018. The construction will include a psychiatric emergency center, a neighborhood clinic, and a brand new hospital, among other buildings.
Wednesday’s vote came after nearly an hour of discussion among commissioners about the JPS budget, and in particular the hospital’s history of underbudgeting its annual revenues. In its budget for fiscal year 2026, the hospital expects an operating margin of 2.9%, which comes out to a revenue of $151 million. But for the past six years, the hospital has underbudgeted its revenue, a sticking point for County Judge Tim O’Hare when it came to setting the tax rate.
“What we’re really talking about here with setting a tax rate, we’re talking about how much profit that the hospital district gets to make to apply toward future capital projects,” O’Hare said.
The hospital created its budget using a tax rate that was below the no new revenue rate, but higher than the ceiling passed on Wednesday.
“I think y’all do a great job of bringing in revenue,” O’Hare said to JPS CEO Dr. Karen Duncan. “I just think you do a lousy job of budgeting the revenue.”
Republican Commissioner Manny Ramirez suggested that in future years, commissioners and the hospital’s board sit down to have a more in depth discussion about the JPS budget and tax rate.
Democrat Alisa Simmons opposed lowering the tax rate, noting that this would be the third year of lowering taxes.
“How much longer can you do that without affecting the services you provide our constituents?” she asked.
Hospital CFO Kim Hodgkinson said she was waiting on developments at the federal level in the next year to be able to predict future hospital outcomes.
“In the worst case scenario we would not be able to go down more,” Hodgkinson said. “I would hate to bring it down and in two years come back and need to raise taxes again.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 3:59 PM.
