Saddled with revenue troubles that required a leaner budget process than in prior years, three of the biggest cities in Texas boosted pay for public safety personnel.
The city councils of Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio all adopted annual budgets this month. All three faced tax revenue shortfalls that necessitated budget cuts, but all voted to increase departmental budgets and personnel compensation for police and fire departments.
In San Antonio, the increases partially met the demands of the San Antonio Police Officers Association, which maintains the largest collective bargaining agreement of its kind in Texas.
Fort Worth also has collective bargaining agreements with local police and fire unions, and city officials made the fire department budget a top priority for the next fiscal year.
Dallas made its police force “one of the highest-paid departments within the region” after increasing starting compensation, a city press release claimed.
Here are the details for each municipality.
San Antonio
San Antonio, the most populous city in Texas after Houston, entered budget deliberations with a projected $158 million general fund shortfall, according to the initial draft budget prepared by the city manager.
The city’s budget hardships stemmed in part from a “cooling” housing market, according to a forecast prepared by the city budget office, with a decline in property values expected to drag property tax revenue down for the first time in at least a decade.
The council ultimately decided to raise San Antonio’s property tax rate for the first time in more than 30 years when it approved the budget, hiking the rate from 54.159 cents to 56.288 cents per $100 of taxable value.
The final $4.4 billion budget approved by a 7-to-4 vote on September 17 includes $676.5 million for police and $451.2 million for the fire department, representing increases of 7 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively.
Just before approving the citywide budget, the city signed a collective bargaining agreement with the San Antonio Police Officers Association that will raise officers’ wages by 16.5 percent by 2029, adding up to $102.3 million over the next three years. The newly approved budget includes $15.4 million for this wage increase.
Dallas
Due in part to unexpectedly low sales tax revenue, the City of Dallas was forced to take cost-saving measures well before it approved its $5.7 billion annual budget on September 16 by a 10-to-5 vote.
In May, the city learned that Fiscal Year 2026 expenses were projected to exceed revenue by $30.1 million. On the revenue side of the ledger, sales tax collections were projected to fall short of last year’s expectations by $6.1 million, according to the May presentation.
As a result, the city announced in late June that non-uniformed employees would have to take three mandatory furlough days in July and September.
Ahead of budget meetings in August, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson urged the council to trim unnecessary spending and keep lowering the property tax rate while preserving pension plans and ensuring “competitive” pay for police officers and firefighters.
The new budget raises starting compensation for police officers to $83,822 and adds 750 new officers over a two-year period, according to a city press release. The Dallas Police Department’s total budget grew from $758.4 million to $823.9 million, up 8.6 percent and accounting for about 40 percent of the $2.04 billion general fund.
Fort Worth
The budget development process in Fort Worth began with a general fund shortfall of $49 million that worsened to $94 million once the city received final property taxable values, according to the city manager’s draft budget.
Even though the city ultimately voted to raise the property tax rate from 67 cents to 70.565 cents per $100 valuation, the average Fort Worth homeowner will still receive a lighter tax bill due to a weak real estate market and, in turn, lower appraisals.
Right-sizing the Fort Worth Fire Department’s budget was one of the city’s top challenges, according to the draft, which listed it as the only city department that “received significant attention during the budget development process.” Unanticipated expenses, especially overtime pay and fleet maintenance, required the city in previous years to divert funds from other sources to the department.
The final $1.2 billion budget, approved unanimously on September 15, pencils in a tentative 8.5 percent pay raise for firefighters, though negotiations with the local firefighters’ union may yield a different number.
In accordance with the city’s meet-and-confer agreement with the Fort Worth Police Officers Association, which expires in 2028, the budget also includes a 6 percent pay increase for officers.