Fort Worth presents unaudited FY25 general fund report showing revenue shortfall and assigned reserves

Fort Worth finance officials on Tuesday presented unaudited results for fiscal year 2025 showing the city under-collected on key revenue sources and finished the year with a sizable but constrained fund balance.

Christiane Simmons, chief transformation officer, and Finance Director Reggie Zeno said the city began FY25 with a general fund balance of about $332 million and is projecting an unaudited ending balance near $301 million. "We began fiscal year 25 with a fund balance of 332,000,000," Simmons said during the presentation. Zeno said property tax and sales tax collections were the primary shortfalls.

Zeno gave more detail on the largest categories: the city budgeted roughly $613 million in property tax revenue and collected about $602 million, leaving a variance of roughly $12 million; sales-tax growth slowed during the summer months and finished the year below early projections. Zeno described revenue results as broadly in line with expectations given economic uncertainty and said staff used conservative spending controls to offset much of the shortfall.

Simmons and Zeno said the city plans targeted transfers and assignments using fund balance. Among the lineup discussed were carryovers for capital projects, $1 million set aside for the library community arts project, approximately $23.1 million in capital project rollovers and several other assignments tied to contract obligations. Zeno said the unassigned general-fund reserve would end the year near 22.06% of the budget — below the 25% goal rating agencies prefer.

Officials also flagged pressures in several internal funds. The group health fund was about $16 million short of its reserve target before planned transfers; staff proposed a $3.1 million transfer from the general fund and other multilateral transfers to reduce the gap. The fire and police budgets finished modestly over budget, largely due to overtime; staff said those overages are typical of public-safety payroll pressures and often later offset by reimbursements. The IT internal service fund was also noted as having a deficit that staff plan to address with a multi-year restoration plan.

Council members asked technical questions about timing and transfers; staff said a final M&C (Miscellaneous and Consent) item amending budgets was scheduled for a later council meeting and that the annual audit and final financial statement would be presented in March. The city warned that while fund balance remains substantial, building unassigned reserves toward the 25% target will remain a priority.

The presentation concluded with staff noting next steps: a recommended M&C amendment later in January to finalize assignments and transfer actions and a scheduled audit committee review ahead of the March financial presentation.