Tarrant County College overstated the decline in its taxable property values by nearly $36 billion before trustees approved a tax increase in early September.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The college announced Sept. 28 that its certified net taxable value fell from about $322.9 billion in 2025 to $319.1 billion in 2026 \u2014 a $3.8 billion drop, rather than the $39 billion previously reported<\/a>. TCC said it had compared two different measures of taxable value.<\/p>\n The corrections do not change the property tax rate of 12 cents per $100 valuation that trustees approved Sept. 10<\/a>, up from 11.228 cents last year. For a property with the same taxable value in both years, it adds $7.72 annually for every $100,000 in taxable value.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have reviewed the numbers, adjusted them and are sharing that information,\u201d board President Jeannie Deakyne said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n The adopted rate is above the revised no-new-revenue rate of 11.3326 cents<\/a> per $100, which would collect roughly the same tax revenue as the previous years. It remains below 12.3108 cents, the threshold above which voters would have to approve the rate.<\/p>\n Trustee Laura Forkner Pritchett, who cast the sole vote against the tax rate increase, said a constituent raised concerns about the published figures. They reviewed the property-value comparison and tax-rate calculation before she asked administrators to check the numbers.<\/p>\n \u201cTaxpayers deserve information that is accurate, transparent and worthy of their trust,\u201d Pritchett said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n TCC cited declining taxable property values, reduced state funding and frozen tuition and fees as budget financial pressures when trustees approved its $429.4 million operating budget in August<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n TCC also corrected how much property value it excluded from its tax-rate calculations for tax increment financing zones. In those zones, a share of taxes generated by rising property values pays for development projects<\/a>. The excluded values needed to reflect the percentage of its taxes on that growth contributed to each zone\u2019s fund, according to the college.<\/p>\n Dang Le is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at dang.le@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.<\/p>\n The Report\u2019s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Fort Worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n