Tarrant County commissioners lowered the tax rate for the county’s public hospital for the second year in a row, although the hospital’s own board of managers has yet to vote on the budget the tax rate will fund.
Commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines to lower the hospital district’s tax rate to 18.75 cents per $100 of assessed value, down from this year’s rate of 19.45 cents. The average tax will bill be $518.53, down from $552. 61 a year ago.
In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, property taxes paid for about 34% of the county hospital’s operations.
The tax rate commissioners voted on Tuesday isn’t final. The court will take a final vote Sept. 17.
In years prior, the JPS Board of Managers has approved a tax rate and budget before commissioners voted . This year, commissioners decided on the tax rate first.
Roger Fisher, the chair of the JPS board, said it’s a “misnomer” that the JPS board recommends a tax rate to county commissioners.
“We don’t, it’s not within our purview,” Fisher said. “Our job is to present a responsible budget that the hospital needs to operate on, and it’s the court’s job to set that rate and to formally approve that budget.”
In response to questions from the Star-Telegram, JPS Health Network said in a statement that “the Tarrant County Commissioners Court approves a tax rate without requiring it to be passed through” the board of managers. “Once the tax rate is set, JPS Health Network presents a budget with the county-approved tax rate to the [Tarrant County Hospital District] for approval.”
The hospital district is a component unit of Tarrant County government. Its board of managers are appointed by Tarrant County commissioners.
Last year, the JPS voted first on both a tax rate and a budget before sending the fiscal plan to commissioners for approval. Commissioners rejected the board’s proposed rate in 2023, forcing the hospital to redo its budget projections.
JPS staff have not presented a proposed budget for 2025 to the public. JPS board members, and the public, will see the proposed budget for the first time at a meeting Thursday . Commissioner Alisa Simmons said she received a copy of the budget Monday night before Tuesday’s vote.
Commissioner Roy Brooks, who voted against the tax rate, said it was “premature at best” to vote on a rate before receiving a presentation on the hospital district’s budget. Simmons, Brooks’ fellow Democrat on the court, agreed.
“I’m being asked to vote on a tax rate and I haven’t seen a budget yet,” Simmons said.
Commissioner Manny Ramirez and County Judge Tim O’Hare said they had met individually with JPS CEO Dr. Karen Duncan, and that she had said she was comfortable with the tax rate.
No representatives from the hospital spoke to commissioners Tuesday.
In July, hospital leaders said they had begun drafting the budget assuming an annual 8% growth in property values and using a no new revenue rate on that assumed growth. But the net taxable value in Tarrant County actually decreased this year , by about 0.7%, instead of increasing. A no new revenue rate would generate the same amount of revenue in 2025 from properties that were on the tax rolls in 2024.
“If we happen to start seeing years where that valuation starts to decline, or shift the other way, of course that would be much more impactful to JPS,” Rory McCrady, the interim CFO for JPS, said at the meeting in July, before receiving the certified tax rolls from the Tarrant Appraisal District.
As the county’s public hospital, JPS cares for an outsize share of the county’s uninsured and publicly insured residents. The county is in the midst of a massive period of construction that will include a new hospital and psychiatric emergency room. The construction is being paid for in part through an $800 million in bonds that voters approved in 2018. The remainder of the work will be paid for through cash the hospital has been saving for years.
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