Fort Worth reports $29 million in net FY24 operations gain; $47 million identified for capital but council urged to weigh priorities

Fort Worth’s preliminary, unaudited financial results for fiscal year 2024 show the city closed the year with an improved general-fund position, the city manager reported at the Jan. 14 work session.

Lede: City Manager David Cook told council the city fell short of its FY24 revenue forecast by about $11 million — chiefly $6 million in property tax and $12 million in sales tax shortfalls — but spent about $40 million less than budgeted, yielding a $29 million net operations surplus. Combined with strong interest income for the year, the unaudited ending fund balance was roughly $332 million.

Why it matters: Cook and finance staff outlined both the improvement in available funds and the trade‑offs the council faces. Staff recommended modestly increasing the unassigned general-fund reserve target to 22 percent of operations while reserving money to fill capital funding gaps from prior bond programs.

Fiscal highlights: The presentation displayed these key figures — a beginning FY24 general-fund balance of about $306 million; a revenue shortfall of roughly $11 million compared with budget (primarily lower property and sales tax receipts); operating expenditures that trailed budget by about $40 million; and net operations surplus of approximately $29 million. Interest and investment income for FY24 added another $29.7 million. Finance recommended transferring $5 million to the risk-management fund to cover claims exposures and leaving about $24.7 million of net interest income available for one‑time uses.

Reserves and capital availability: After accounting for previously committed and rolled-over obligations and proposed assignments, staff identified about $47 million available for capital projects. Staff proposed raising the unassigned reserve target from the existing baseline to 22 percent of the general-fund budget (about $232.6 million unassigned) and noted the city’s multi-year debt capacity modeling has been revised to reflect a slightly lower property-tax base and a plan to use a larger tax-note authorization to fund ambulance replacement tied to the MedStar transition.

Debt and capacity: Cook walked the council through an updated debt-capacity forecast that showed available capacity depends on assumptions including assessed-value growth (staff modeled a conservative 3 percent scenario vs. an earlier 4 percent assumption), and an adjustment to tax-note issuance to support ambulance purchases. Staff said the revised forecast and the $47 million available for capital do not solve an estimated roughly $108 million shortfall across the 2014–2022 bond programs and that council would be asked to prioritize allocations in subsequent meetings.

Next steps: Finance will present the city’s annual audited comprehensive financial report at a Feb. 18 council briefing and return with recommendations for allocating the $47 million for capital uses and options for addressing bond-program gaps. City staff urged caution about relying on higher interest income as a recurring revenue source because market rates may change.

Source: Presentation and remarks by City Manager David Cook and finance staff at the Fort Worth City Council work session, Jan. 14, 2025.