City staff present certified tax rolls; preliminary tax rate set at no-new-revenue level

City staff on Monday presented the certified property-tax rolls to the North Richland Hills City Council and outlined how those figures determine the city's preliminary tax calculations.

Trudy Lewis, the staff presenter, told the council that "The Tarrant County Central Appraisal District does submit to all taxing entities by July 25, the certified rolls, and we did receive our information last week," and walked members through how market, appraised and taxable values differ and how exemptions and appraisal caps affect revenue.

Why it matters: certified values feed the "truth in taxation" forms that underpin the city's budget timeline and public notices. Lewis said the city receives revenue based on taxable value only and that the certified roll can change because some accounts remain unresolved before the appraisal review board (ARB). She noted an estimated $93 million in value remains before the ARB and about $7 million in incomplete accounts.

Key figures and program impacts: Lewis reported that senior exemptions have risen from roughly 4,000 in 2015 to nearly 7,000 in the current certified roll and that combined senior and disabled tax ceilings now affect about 31.4% of the city's residential properties in fiscal 2026; staff projects that share could grow to about 37% in five years. Lewis also presented FY26 tax-rate benchmarks: the current adopted total rate is 0.489389, the no-new-revenue rate is 0.497841 and the voter-approval rate is 0.51149. "For fiscal year 26, the no new revenue rate is 0.497841," she told the council.

Staff said market and taxable values tell different stories: Lewis highlighted that average single-family market values showed a decline from about $381,000 to roughly $367,000, while taxable-value averages remained essentially flat (taxable averages were reported near $285,000 year over year). She cautioned that market-sales indices (for example, realtor.com) will not match certified appraisal totals because the appraisal district also counts owners who remain in place and parcels not recently sold.

Council follow-up and next steps: City Manager Paulette Hartman (who introduced the presentation) said the briefing was intended as a primer and reminded the council that the full proposed budget and detailed tax-rate worksheets will be available at the budget work session set for Aug. 1 at Grand Hall. "This is just intended to be a primer," Hartman said, urging council members to review the provided materials before Friday's session.

The council did not take action on the tax rate at Monday's meeting; staff recommended and included the no-new-revenue rate (0.497841) as the preliminary rate in the proposed budget for council review at Friday's work session.